Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-05-14
THE HORSE.

Boy Tribute to Him Is Not Undesesved-
The horse is noble animal and has
four legs. These are the famous words
with which hundred million school
boys. more or less. have begun their
composition upon that weIl-known
and useful member of the animal king
dom.
As compared with other animals the
horse has prominent place in history
and literature, sharing with man a
modieum of his praise. The dog and
the cat are closer companions. but they
are not SO clearly identified with mem
exploits as the horse is. This intimacy
was established by the fact that the
horse is the only tame or tractable an
lmal which man can T de. The person
who first discovered that his legs and
the horses barrel were as providential-
~ designed for one another as a ball
Tor its socket, or hook for an eye.
must have been the hero of his day and
generation.
The sailor whom Hood describes in
one of his poems d ID not, however, take
tbs view Of the matter at ALL His ship
having sailed because of MS staying too
long with his sweetheart. he undertook
to head it of on horseback. Never
having been on an animal he had the
hostler splice his legs under the
horses keel and on he went leav-
ing 1.-The inn a-starn." How she did
pitch.' She hadn't run knot be-
fore he made for fresh water pond.
s. All the while she stood a-drinking,
Her body didn't take, OF course. to shrink
Says l., she's letting out her reefs, I'm
thinking:
And Yet the tackle held,
Till both my legs began to bend like
winkin.
Ny eyes, but she took in enough to foun
And there's my timbers straining every
And her tarnation hull growing roupder.'
They '.Iay there dashed and water
logged together until man came to
his aid and cut them loose. And he'd
be "blowed'' if his legs after thai
were Mt ALWAYS bowed.
The close adaptation of man and
horse led to the coming of word OF
purpose to describe it. We hear OF
horsemen and cavalry; but we do not
hear of dogmen or catmen, or even OF
camel or elephant men. 1t is true in
this country we have the cowboy,
but the cowboy is only horsemar
after all.
The many names for the horse show
his usefulness. Steed, nag. palfrey
charger. courser, racer. iument. pony
barb. roam, Jade. hack, pad. cob. etc,
about forty in all-indicate his var'ou:
uses for speed, sport, comfort and bur
dens.
The earliest reference to the horse ii
Scriptures. singularly enough, suggests
a trade. Joseph, foreseeing the famine
in Egypt bought up the corn, and wher
it got scarce he exchanged it with the
people for their horses. He gave then
his corn and took their .'cobs" in ex
change as it were. The horse is men
toned in the Old Testament, most fre
quently in connection with war, show
ing that in the early days he was USED
for military rather than domestic pur
poses. In the New Testament he i
mentioned only in the Book of Revela
tons, where a procession of horses o
different colors, with different riders, ii
seen in a vision, ending with death or
the pale horse.
The great historical horse. undoubt
edly, is Alexander's Bucephalus. Per
haps when Alexander was a little DO,
he said or thought like another littl,
boy, on his mother rebuking him fol
breaking his toy horse, What is ths
good of horse unless he's broke?'
At any rate. no body else being able Il
do so, Alexander ..broke' Bucephalus
making the horse eminent above all thu
rest of his species.
The equine hero of Sheridan's ride
would likewise stand a very fair chanct
of Immortality if the poet had only men
toned his name. History says tha
Caligula, the Roman Emperor. made
his horse a Consul, but in this country
the Executive has been OCCASIONAL,
known to make some donkey Con.
sui.
Shakespeare refers to the horse score:
of times, but the best known is also
suggestive of horse trade when Rich.
for horse In fiction the horse has
been almost as valuable as he has beer
in actual life. He has carried away
clipping lovers. rescued heroes and her.
Dimes from peril, saved the lives OF
women and children from fire, food
and wild beasts. and decided the fate
of armies. The fortunes of that SOL
der of fortune, s.Dugald Dalgetty.' in
Scott ..Montrose'' are almost wholly
associated with his serviceable horse.
Byron's poem of '.Mazeppa'' has i'm
mortalized the steed of ..Eukarine
breed" Theodore Winthrop's Mormon
story. John Brent" has made a
greater hero of Don Fulano." his
horse, than of the hero himself. The
plot Of George Eliot's story of '.Silas
Manner turns upon a quarrel over a
horse The horses that drought the
good news from Client to AK in Rob
ert Browning poem are familiar to
every school-boy. though there were
no such horses and there were no good
men to be brought from Client to AK
Cables latest story. '.Dr. Sevier,' con-
tains a graphic description of a night
ride on horseback in the midst of great
peril.
Dean Swift devotes one section of his
'.Gulliver's Travels to an imaginary
country. which Bergh undoubtedly con-
ceiyes to be a picture of Heaven. The
country is ruled by an intelligent race
of horses, called Houyhuhums-a word
that is intended to initiate their whin-
nying. They have for their servants
and slaves the Yahoos, q degraded
species of human beings. And when
one sees the cruelties inflicted BY some
brutes in the form of men upon their
patient, wretched quadrupeds. one is
tempted to wish that somewhere and
sometime the horses might have their
inning and do the chatting; while tho
two-legged brutes do the running
The author of Don Quixote'' has made
that famous knights steed. Rosinante,