The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1892-02-11
The Wild Horse.

Very young students, in their at
tempts at composition, often Informed
US that the horse is a useful animal.
This sweeping generalization is subject
to important notifications before 1t is
accepted in all communities. There are
many thousands Of horses that toll not
like their progenitors, but like the wind
where it listeth, and are looked upon as
intolerable nuisances in the civilized re-
gions they sometimes invade. Our Aus
trslian friends, for instance, are no lover
of the horse in his untamed state, and
some of the colonies set price upon his
head, and do all they can to stimulate
movements for his destruction.
Several thousand wild horses were
shot in New South Wales alone in 1879.
These rovers Of tho plains play the mis-
chief with the domesticated animals
when they come among them, and the
colonists are very much disgusting to
observe that the noble horse relapsing
into barbarism, and forgetting his oats
and other comforts of civilization, runs
off with his wild brethren who have not
enjoyed hissuperior advantages.
It must be confessed that our horses
need the restraint imposed upon them
to prevent them from disgracing their
ancestors, who were certainly domestica-
ted when they were introduced into this
country. Years ago it used to be the
custom in our southwestern territory
to brand the young stock and even many
work animals, and turn them loose to
shift for themselves for year or two.
When they we're wanted they were al
ways as wild as Mexican mustangs. Mr..
Powell wrote book on the best meth
cd of tanning wild horses. The specimen
on which he exerted his talents as q
tanner were for the most part formerly
domesticated animals, who had forgot
ten all about their restraints while wan
deriug over the plains of our southwest.
ern territory.
Travellers in western territories are no
longer in danger of such an eruption of
horsefesh as Murray described in his
"Travels in North America" He not
only witnessed a stampede of thous'
ands of panicstricken horses, but liv-
ing torrent swept along toward and over
camp, trampliug skins and dried meat
into the ground, knocking down some of
the tents and taking With them all its
horses except his riding mare, who vain
ly struggled to break her fastenings.
They still range in much smaller herds
than formerly on the plains on the upper
Colorado, but the wild horse, like the
buffalo, had practically disappeared be.
fore the advance of the white man.
In spite of the experience ofthe Aus.
tralians, many peoples, chiefly savage,
have been able to turn the wild horse
to good account. Hundreds of tbous.
ands of Mexican mustangs have been re.
duced to servitude. The wild horse of
the South American pampas, which
three centuries ago had spread to re.
gions as remote as Patagonia, has been
tanned by the thousands and has become
the useful servants of Indian tribes.
Naturalists often discuss the question
whether there is now in the world such
8 creature as an aboriginal or truly
wild horse. We know very well that the
wild horses of the western hemisphere
are all descendants of domesticated ami.
mails. Where, then, is the aboriginal
wild horse to be found? The question
will probably never be settled. Mr.. j.
b. Steel thinks the evidence is in favor
of the existence of the wild horse in cen
tral Asia. Gesner, the great authority
in zoology of the Sixteenth century, was
of the same opinion, but the fact has
often been questioned and the assertion
cannot positively be made that the wild
horse of the great mountain region which
the Russians are now exploring, and OF
which they have secured some specimens,
is not himself the descendant of ancient
domestic animals. Goldthwaite's Geo.
graphical Magasias.