Anna's Anniversary

Even ardent Verdians are apt to titter when, in the lush triumphal scene of Aida, a gaudily festooned white horse clatters on the boards of the stage. But to Anna, the mare which for almost 25 years has appeared at the Metropolitan in Aida, that scene is serious stuff. In her younger days Anna also acted in Ben Hur and The Sheik. Last week, Anna, 36 years old, had a birthday party fit for a queen.

Last year Douglas G. Hertz of Rockleigh, N. J., a millionaire horseman, founded the Pegasus Club of New Jersey for horse enthusiasts. To Anna's party last week he invited 15 proletarian nags and one mule. In favor hats (with holes for their ears), looking as giddy as tipsy old maids on New Year's Eve, the horses munched carrots and greens, then champed into a heavily iced birthday cake. Afterward Anna was awarded a special hat--lavender with an ostrich feather--as the most glamorous horse present. But in the contest for work horse with longest service, Anna, being an artist, was disqualified. The award (a leather feed bag) went to Tootsie, who has pulled a pickle wagon through The Bronx for 15 years. "All work and no play," says Mr. Hertz, "makes Dobbin a dull bay."

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