Elizabeth daily monitor. [volume] (Elizabeth, N.J.) 1868-1880, 1869-04-26
GIisubstb Daily Monitpr,
PUBLISHED AT 155 BROAD STREET, BY
J. MADISON DRAKE.
THE HORSE.

upOA ouo uIddy huO oPOSluOho VI WIS
noble animal which are seen in our
cities. What would man be and what
could he do without horse. His
presence and the service and the bene.
fits which he bestows upon man, seem
to us alone sufficient proof Of the ex-
silence of God and of the degree of
care and protection which he exercises
toward man. A hundred animals,
quite as useful and as capable of being
domesticated for the service of man,
might easily have been created by the
same power that made the horse. This
one, however, was sufficient, and as the
Creator only designs to furnish US with
what is necessary for our use, and re-
quisite for the development Of our fac
ultes, only this one was given.
We confess that we have often lam
ented the fate of the horse, when we
have seen him, as he frequently does,
evincing not only more OF the virtues
Of usefulness, amiability, and effort,
but even higher degree of intelligence
than his owner or driver. One is some
times strongly tempted to believe if
this animal could walk erect and pos
sessed hands and the power of speech
he would be the superior of man, and
to wonder if all his intelligence, docili-
ty and usefulness is never to receive
any other reward than his measure of
corn and oats, until the time comes
for him to end his brief but laborious
and useful existence. We cannot re-
sist the thought, sometimes, that he is
q fallen spirit, degraded in it's embodi-
ment, and working out a life of proba-
ton and penance, and never look at
fine, intelligent horse, without feeling
in some degree an increase of rever-
ence and thankfulness to the Almighty
Creator.
The Bible seems to decide the point
that the first domestication of the
horse was in Egypt and not in Arabia,
as some have supposed. When the
Israelites came into Canaan we find
that the Canaanites went out to fight
against them, with many chariots and
horsemen.
Six hundred years after the time re-
ferred to, Arabia had no horses. Solo
mon imported silver, gold and spices
from Arabia, but all the horses for his
own cavalry and chariots, he procured
from Egypt. In this place it is men
toned that horse brought from Egypt
cost one hundred and fifty shekels, of
silver, which at two shillings three
pence each, the accepted value of a
shekel of silver, amount to about EFT
sterling, an enormous sum for those
days.
Though the horse has long been the
companion and the servant of man, yet
his native country cannot with certain
ty be traced. 1t seems probable that
he was first domesticated in Egypt, but
the precise period is not known. About
two thousand years before the birth Of
Christ, when Abraham was driven into
Egypt by the famine which ragged in
Canaan, Pharoah offered him sheep
oxen and camels. Horses would doubt
less have been added, had they then
existed, or had they been domesticated
in Egypt. Fifty years afterwards,
when Abraham iourneyed to Mount
Moliah, to offer up his only son, he
rode upon an ass, which with all his
wealth and power he would not have
done had the horse been known.
Thirty years later an account iss given
of the number of oxen, sheep, camels,
goats and asses which Jacob sent to APP
pease the anger of Esau, but no horses
are mentioned. Twenty-four years
after this when famine again devastated
Canaan, and Jacob sent into Egypt to
buy corn, we first hear of horses.
Wagons drawn by horses were sent by
Joseph into Canaan to bring his father
into Egypt Even then, however,
horses do not seem to have been used
as beasts of burden, for the corn, which
was to be conveyed some hundreds of
miles to afford sustenance to jacobs
large household, was carried on asses.
A certain Sunday School teacher
was in the habit of making q collectson
in the juvenile class for missionary OBJ
iects He was not little surprised, one
day, to find a counterfeit shilling
among the coppers, and on asking the
class who put it there the donor was
pointed out to him by one who had
seen him deposit it.
Didn't you know that this good for
nothing % said the teacher.
eyes" answered the boy.
'Then what did you put it in the
box for?"
The boy coolly replied. 81 didn'
s'pose the little heathens would know