The Escape of the Spokane Horse
A horse weighing over 1,000 pounds somehow exits a moving train car through a small ventilation window.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Last week a Mr. Davis, of Spokane Falls, placed a couple of horses aboard a Northern Pacific freight car for shipment to Seattle. They made the journey all right as far as Yakima, when a most singular thing occurred. The window in the rear of the car had been left open for ventilation, and through this one of the horses made his exit to a flat car and then to the ground. As the window measures but 2 by 2.5 feet, the reader would imagine that the horse was built like a Kansas grasshopper, but the truth is he is a good-sized animal, and weighs between a thousand and eleven hundred pounds.
“the reader would imagine that the horse was built like a Kansas grasshopper, but the truth is he is a good-sized animal”
Railroad history is full of 'impossible' escape stories from livestock cars. This account serves as a reminder of the hazards of frontier logistics and the chaotic nature of early freight transport.
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