LITTLE WHITE MARE IS DEAD. ~ Arabian Funeral Horse Died on Way to Cemetery.

March 10, 1909
LITTLE WHITE MARE IS DEAD.

Arabian Funeral Horse Died on Way
to Cemetery.

There was a little tragedy in a funeral procession on its way to Union cemetery at the corner of Forty-second street and Brooklyn avenue, yesterday afternoon. It was when Ella, a pure white Arabian mare, belonging to the J. W. Wagner undertaking firm, toppled over in her harness and fell dead almost beneath the wheels of the vehicle in which at the closest estimate she has hauled 2,800 bodies to the grave.

Scarcely anyone but the driver, George Wagner, paid more than a passing glance to the dead animal. It was hastily cut loose from its trappings and a team of black horses took the place of the white ones on the hearse.

Ella was imported from Cuba by the undertaking firm, twenty years ago. Her mate, John, cost $700 exclusive of transportation charges. She was a pedigreed Arabian with glistening white hair, through which could be seen her pink skin. Her mate died two years ago. Since then she had been harnessed with a white horse of mongrel stock, but years younger than herself.

Members of the firm say that Ella has the undertaker's horse of Kipling's poem beaten in many ways as a tractable animal, and that her professional experience exceeds anything of the kind on record.