Skip to content

Horses.

Sunday, July 10, 2011
Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, August 11, 1900

     Two horse thieves mounted on fleet ponies invaded the Chicago stock yards districts and escaped with fifteen or more animals.

Filed in Horses | Tagged | Comments (0)

Union Stock Yards.[Chicago, Illinois]

Sunday, July 10, 2011
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, January 12, 1867

     These immense yards, which were incorporated in 1865, and opened to the public for business January 1, 1866, are now in full operation, and is the largest livestock market in the world. We give the following summary of their size and cost of construction, which will be valuable for reference:

     Amount of land owned by the Company, 845 acres.

     Number of acres in pens, 100.

     Number of acres for hotel and other buildings, 45.

     Number of acres reserved for pens, 200.

     Capacity of yards, 2,730 car loads.

     Capacity of cattle, 21,000.

     Capacity of hogs, 76,000.

     Capacity for sheep, 18,000.

     Stalls for horses, 200.

     Number of pens, 1,500.

     Miles of drainage, 31.

     Miles of water pipes, 6.

     Number of hydrants, 300.

     Three water tanks holding 114,000 gallons each, total, 342,000 gallons.

     Number of miles of streets and alleys, 7.

     Number of miles of water troughs, 3.

     Number of miles of feed troughs, 10.

     Number of gates, 2,000.

     Amount of lumber consumed, 22,000,000 feet.

     Amount of nails consumed, 500,000 pounds.

     Three miles of hog pens covered with sheds.

     Size of hotel, 144 by 180-capacity, 500 guests. Exchange building, 130 by 60; eating house, 30 by 90.

     Nine hay barns, capacity 10,200 bales.

     Three horse barns, capacity 200 horses.

     Six corn cribs, capacity 50,000 bushels.

     One horse shed, 40 stalls.

     Five weigh scales and houses, 50 tons each.

     Two truck scales, 30 tons each.

     One ice house.

     One turn table.

     One passenger depot.

     Fifteen miles of railroad track.

     Sixty switchs and frogs.

     Total cost of construction, $1,675,000.

Filed in Cattle, Horses, Pigs, Sheep | Tagged | Comments (0)

Friendships of Animals.

Saturday, July 9, 2011
Published in the Lake County Independent, Libertyville, Illinois on Friday, November 6, 1903

Queer Cases of Attachments Formed in Large Zoological Gardens.

     Among the strange features of life in a large zoo are the unexpected and at times amusing friendships that spring up between animals of altogether dissimilar habits and natures, says London Tit-Bits. Out at the National zoo two rhesus monkeys have formed a warm friendship for a large Belgian hare, but this is not so surprising as some of the platonic loves that have been noted elsewhere. Some years ago the botanical gardens at Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, kept a large manatee in a pond on the grounds. It was an immense creature and in time became so tame that it would come to the water’s edge and eat grass out of the hands of the visitors. This leviathan formed an attachment for a European swan kept on the lake and followed it about as though the swan were its guardian, so that wherever the swan happened to be one had only to look in the clear water by its side to see the lazy manatee floating about and feeding on the water plants on the bottom. Visitors soon found this out and by coaxing the swan to the edge of the lake they were always sure of the manatee’s following. When the swan left the water the manatee was discontented and restless until it returned. As for the swan, it grew so accustomed to the big animal that it had no fear when the manatee rose by its side to take air, and so the two got along famously.

     Mr. Afialo, in his description of the private manageries of England, says that such attachments come about often in the big animal parks of Great Britain. At one of them, Leonardslee, he saw a Sambur deer and a Welsh pony that were great chums. At present one of the pair of hippopotami in the London zoo has grown very fond of an ordinary black house cat that enters and leaves the quarters of the big brute at will. In another private managerie in England Mr. Afialo saw two grey wolves that were “hand in glove” with a European bear. Sometimes the bear would get tired of the incessant, boisterous play of the wolves, in which event he would climb a tree and lie down to sleep in the forks of some branches, leaving his companions to howl over his absence below.

     Sir Harry Johnston, the discoverer of the Okapi, in his recent work on Uganda, describes how, for a time, he undertook the taming and domestication of a number of wild animals of that country, an experiment in which he was partly successful. Among the animals which he had at his zoological experiment station were a baby elephant and a young zebra that became cronies. The little elephant had a way of twining its trunk in loving embrace around the neck of the zebra, and, although the latter was usually very affectionate toward the little elephant, at other times it became bored and tired of the constant attentions and demonstrations of love, and nipped the little elephant with its sharp teeth, right spitefully, causing the little fellow to squeal under the pinch.

Filed in Bears, Elephants, Ponies, Rabbits, Swans, Wolves | Tagged | Comments (0)

Animal Habits Not Changed.

Friday, July 8, 2011
Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Monday, June 10, 1918

Sheep Run to the Hills, Hogs Grunt as a Signal, Dogs Fashion Their Own Bed.

     Sheep, when frightened, always run to an elevation, because their ancestors originally came from the mountains. They always follow a leader, because in the dangerous mountain passes their ancestors had to go in single file. Hogs grunt because their feeding grounds were thick woods, where they could not see one another, and sound was necessary to keep them together.

     Dogs have a way of turning around several times before they lie down. This looks very foolish now, but when they were wild things centuries ago, they slept in the tall grass and turned around several times to hollow out a bed, and they have never outgrown this habit, but to this late day they will turn around on a rug just as if they were in the tall grass.

     Cats have, perhaps, the most traces of old ancestral habits. Many times they do have a trace of the lion or tiger very near the surface. Their uncertain temper, their purring and growling, their sudden bounds, their tendency to scratch, all come from the forest and the jungle.-Indianapolis News.

Filed in Cats, Dogs, Pigs, Sheep | Tagged | Comments (0)

Spider’s.

Friday, July 8, 2011
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, June 16, 1877

     An extraordinary trial is about to take place before a Parisian tribunal. A jealous husband in the village of Carrieres fell upon a novel mode of punishing his wife for her flirtations by compelling her to swallow a live spider every Monday morning. After submitting for a time, she informed the police, and the husband was arrested and put in prison.

Filed in Spiders | Tagged | Comments (0)

Great Loss of Swine.

Friday, July 8, 2011
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, June 16, 1877

     Mr. Dodge, the Statistician of the Department of Agriculture, at Washington, reports, as the results of an investigation of the losses from diseases of swine during the past twelve months, the destrution of 4,000,000 animals of all ages, and a money loss of more than $20,000,000. One-fifth of the reported loss occurs in the State of Illinois; next in prominence are Missouri, Iowa and Indiana, which together lose $10,000,000. Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana have nearly as large a percentage of loss in numbers, aggregating in value a million and a half dollars. The reported losses are very small in New England, the country bordering on the great lakes, and the Pacific coast. Of the remaining districts. West Virginia comes nearest exemption, and Ohio and the Atlantic coast States stand better than the alluvial districts. The apparent loss is equivalent to a third of the sum of exports of pork products last year. It is somewhat greater than usual, eliciting demands from corresponents for a competent scientific investigation by the government.

Filed in Pigs | Tagged | Comments (0)

Teambalk [Horses]

Friday, July 8, 2011
Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, February 21, 1903

Fire Wagon Horses Balky and it May Prove Disastrous.

Refused To Leave Barn.

Change had to be made-Delay of Ten Minutes Might Have Proved Serious.

     It is with regret that city officials, especially the fire department, admit that the team bought a little over a year ago for the fire wagon and to which everybody pointed with pride because of their being such fine specimons, are no good. They won’t do for the work picked out for them.

     Last night, for the second or third time when called to a fire, the horses refused to leave the barn. They balked at the door and no kind of persuasion served to move them.

     All this time the fire was going on. Fortunately it was not a bad one, hence the delay did not prove disastrous.

     After about ten minutes, during which the team was pushed, pulled and whipped in an endeaver to get them started, the firemen had to unhitch them and put on the truck team to haul the hose wagon to the scene of trouble.

Future Danger

     In this case there were no disastrous results from the delay. However, it forcibly emphasizes the fact that a similar notion may get into the team’s head when called to a fire where immediate attention may be neccessary to prevent a serious conflagration.

Filed in Horses | Tagged | Comments (0)

Attacked By a Vicious Horse.

Thursday, July 7, 2011
Published in the Lake County Independent, Libertyville, Illinois on Friday, September 25, 1896

     William Myers, a Lima, Ohio, horseman, was attacked by a vicious stallion, when two pet bulldogs came to his rescue, attacked the stallion, and compelled it to release its hold. The dogs drove the horse into a stall. The horse killed two men at Bellefontaine, Ohio.

Filed in Dogs, Horses | Tagged | Comments (0)

Saved By a Horse.

Thursday, July 7, 2011
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, November 14, 1874

     Some years since, a party of surveyors had just finished their day’s work in the north-western part of Illinois, when a violent snow storm came on. They started for their camp, which was in a forest of about eighty acres in a large prairie, nearly twenty miles from any other trees. The wind was blowing very hard, and the snow drifting so as to nearly blind them.

     When they thought they had nearly reached their camp, they all at once came upon footsteps in the snow. These they looked at with care, and found, to their dismay, that they were their own tracks. It was now plain that they were lost on the great prairie, and that if they had to pass the night there, in the cold and snow, the chance was that not one of them would be alive in the morning. While they were shivering with fear and cold, the chief man caught sight of one of their horses-a grey pony, known as “Old Jack.”

     Then the chief said, “If any one can show us the way to camp, out of this blinding snow, Old Jack can do it. I will take off his bridle, and let him loose and we can follow him. I think he will show us our way back to camp.”

     The horse, as soon as he found himself free, threw his head and tail in the air, as if proud of the trust that had been put upon him. Then he sniffed the breeze, and gave a loud snort, which seemed to say: “Come on, boys! Follow me; I’ll lead you out of this scrape.” He then turned in a new direction, and trotted along, but not so fast that the men could not follow him. They had not gone more than a mile when they saw the cheerful blaze of their camp-fires, and they gave a loud huzza at the sight, and for Old Jack.

Filed in Horses | Tagged | Comments (0)

Horses.

Thursday, July 7, 2011
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, September 2, 1882

     There is a grey horse worked by the St. Louis Transfer Company in one of the omnibus teams which is an habitual tobacco-chewer. The animal is really passionately fond of the weed, and seems delighted when offered a piece of tobacco. The fact has become known at nearly all the hotels, and the equine with such habits is the recipient of a good deal of attention by human beings addicted to the same habit. The driver of the bus says it costs him at least 50 cents a month to keep the horse supplied, notwithstanding the fact that friends of the beast treat him so often.-Courier Journal.

Filed in Horses | Tagged | Comments (0)