A Ride With A Mad Horse In A Freight-Car | Page 7

was the matter. Her eyes were dull and heavy. Never before had I seen
the light go out of them. The rocking of the car as it went jumping and
vibrating along seemed to irritate her. She began to rub her head against
the side of the car. Touching it, I found that the skin over the brain was
hot as fire. Her breathing grew rapidly louder and louder. Each breath
was drawn with a kind of gasping effort. The lids with their silken
fringe dropped wearily over the lustreless eyes. The head sank lower
and lower, until the nose almost touched the floor. The ears, naturally
so lively and erect, hung limp and widely apart. The body was cold and
senseless. A pinch elicited no motion. Even my voice was at last
unheeded. To word and touch there came, for the first time in all our
intercourse, no response. I knew as the symptoms spread what was the
matter. The signs bore all one way. She was in the first stages of
phrenitis, or inflammation of the brain. In other words, my beautiful
mare mas going mad.
"I was well versed in the anatomy of the horse. Loving horses from my
very childhood, there was little in veterinary practice with which I was
not familiar. Instinctively, as soon as the symptoms had developed
themselves, and I saw under what frightful disorder Gulnare was
laboring, I put my hand into my pocket for my knife, in order to open a
vein. There was no knife there. Friends, I have met with many surprises.
More than once in battle and scout have I been nigh death; but never
did my blood desert my veins and settle so' around my heart, never did
such a sickening sensation possess me, as when standing in that car
with my beautiful mare before me marked with those horrible
symptoms, I made that discovery. My knife, my sword, my pistols even,
were with my suit in the care of my friend, two hundred miles away.

Hastily, and with trembling fingers, I searched my clothes, the
lunch-basket, my linen; not even a pin could I find. I shoved open the
sliding door, and swung my hat and shouted, hoping to attract some
brakeman's attention. The train was thundering along at full speed, and
none saw or heard me. I knew her stupor would not last long. A slight
quivering of the lip, an occasional spasm running through the frame,
told me too plainly that the stage of frenzy would soon begin. 'My
God,' I exclaimed in despair, as I shut the door and turned toward her,
'must I see you die, Gulnare, when the opening of a vein would save
you? Have you borne me, my pet, through all these years of peril, the
icy chill of winter, the heat and torment of summer, and all the
thronging dangers of a hundred bloody battles, only to die torn by
fierce agonies, when so near a peaceful home?'
"But little time was given me to mourn. My life was soon to be in peril,
and I must summon up the utmost power of eye and limb to escape the
violence of my frenzied mare. Did you ever see a mad horse when his
madness is on him? Take your stand with me in that car, and you shall
see what suffering a dumb creature can endure before it dies. In no
malady does a horse suffer more than in phrenitis, or inflammation of
the brain. Possibly in severe cases of colic, probably in rabies in its
fiercest form, the pain is equally intense. These three are the most
agonizing of all the diseases to which the noblest of animals is exposed.
Had my pistols been with me, I should then and there, with whatever
strength Heaven granted, have taken my companion's life, that she
might be spared the suffering which was so soon to rack and wring her
sensitive frame. A horse laboring under an attack of phrenitis is as
violent as a horse can be. He is not ferocious as is one in a fit of rabies.
He may kill his master, but he does it without design. There is in him
no desire of mischief for its own sake, no cruel cunning, no stratagem
and malice. A rabid horse is conscious in every act and motion. He
recognizes the man he destroys. There is in him an insane desire to kill.
Not so with the phrenetic horse. He is unconscious in his violence. He
sees and recognizes no one. There is no method or purpose in his
madness. He kills without knowing it.
"I knew what was coming. I could not jump out, that would be certain

death. I must abide in the car, and take my chance