EDUCATED HORSE BURNT TO DEATH.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9421, 17 April 1909, Page 7

EDUCATED HORSE BURNT TO DEATH.

Seven post office clerks and trainlianda ware billed or burnt to death 4n a collision which took place on <tfce- Pennsylvania railroad, at ■Delraar, Delaware, between an express locomotives. Princess ; Trixie, the educated ffiorse, which King Edward presented with a headpiece, was also ' {-burnt to death. The mare was well-known to .by reason of her performtanoes at the Palace Theatre. It was claimed for her that she was tpnach more" than the ordinary performing animal, and could really ■think. Among her accomplishments were <the following: She knew the alphabet,‘she could read figures, shg could spell words, she could match colours, -she obeyed simple requests, she could add and multiply, and she knew the names of simple objects. ■ Mr Harrison Barnes, her exhibitor-, ■placed a basket of cubes painted with all the letters of the alphabet on the stage and Trixie picked ont sauy letters at command. He pointed •to a oat and asked the mare what ; she had seen. She chose the O, the A, and the T cubes. “What is four times six?” asked ;Mr Barnes. Trixie picked the numbered leather slips two and four, for •24. She would choose her numbers at rthe bidding of strangers if she was : Dot in an obstinate mood. “Trixie,” said someone, “we ■want the number 2.” Trixie put her nose into the figures and brought out the 2. Then she did some multiplication sums. ‘ She was asked how many people were on the stage. Without a woid from her trainer she walked round and produced number 11, which was correct. She picked out the colour wanted from red, white, green, and black handkerchiefs, and when asked by Mr Barnes the colours of her visitors’ ties, gloves, and overcoats chose the nearest shades from handkerchiefs.^ She found coins among cushions, and dragged a muffler from Jbeneath the oarpet in a game of hide and seek. Trixie was taken with pneumonia, and while she was improving on a diet of eggs and milk there were as many inquiries about her by post and at the stage door of the Palaoe as if she bad been a Leno or a Lauder. One day her trainer had 58 letters of sympathy.