The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1893-09-27
HIGH PRICED HORSES SOLD.
Turf Extravaganza in Ancient Times
Bucephalus Cost Thirteen Thousand
Dollars.

Speaking Of costly horses, says Clark's
Horse Review, the purchase of the En-
gljsh race horse, Ormonde, by William
OBJ McDonough, the California mill
louaire, for the princely sum of $3.50, 900
calls to mind some extravagant prices
paid for horses in the past. We do not
mean the SlO5,O00 paid for Axtell, nor
the S125,C00 for Mr.. Forbes's great colt
Arion, nor the big prices paid by that
prince Of good fellows, Robert Bonner,
for his various purchases. But we refer
to some historical purchases, prices paid
in the dim and distant past, time
which many of our readers no doubt
had supposed was void of any extrava-
gance in that one weakness which
seems to have pervaded all epochs Of
civilized time-a weakness for great
horsefiesh.
The writer has been recently spend
! ing a half hour with handful Of old
Latin books, and has had the curiosity
to see what the ancients thoughta good
horse was worth. The curtain of anti
guilty first rolls up on Egypt, and here
we find it recorded in letter, or rather
papyrus, left by one Of their Kings Of
the eighteenth dynasty-telling of his
conquest of a foreign nation-Mesopota-
mia-and how he brought a lot Of very
| fine horses from that country. Homer
also tells US how King Agamemnon
offered Achilles twelve horses that
would win for him great riches by their
racing.
In later years we find King Solomon,
the wisest of men, sending to Egypt
and paying as high as $4,000 TO $1,000
for horses. His own stable was magnlfi-
cent. Alexander, according to Plutarch,
gave about 5000 for Bucephalus, the
most noted of all horses of antiquity;
but Pliny, the historian, puts the price
at nearer $4,000. And here the spirit
of gaming crops out again, for we are
told that when Philonicus, the Thessa-
liam, offered the horse to Philip, the
father of Alexander, the King and his
Court went out to test the speed and
docility of the war horse. The horse
was so vicious and unmanageable that
Philip promptly discarded the idea OF
purchasing, but Alexander, standing
near, who appears to have had more
horse sense than the rest, saw that the
high-strupg animal was frightened at
his own shadow, and remarked: "What
horse they are losing for want of skill
and courage to manage him."
Alexander, who was one of natures
noblemen, conquered nations as he did
Bucephaius and after the conquest, by
his kindness and generosity, he won
them completely. We may learn from
him lesson of kindness to animals,
for when the horse was old he refused
to ride him on his long marches, riding
commoner horse instead; but when
he struck Darius at Arbela, in one of
the worlds decisive battles, he would
go into the fight only on his old horse.
With all Of our boastful civilization
and fast lecorGs We are far behind the
Romans in the matter of horse racing.
The Circus Maximus, which seated
2S5, 900 people, was the greatest race
course the world has ever seen, and the
famous jockey, Diocles, whose likeness
engraved on the metal wheels Of a
child's play cart has been lately dug up
at Pompeii, is said to have earned over
a million dollars in year. We may
very safely conclnde, then that many
horses in those proligate times sold
for more money than Ormoude or any
other horse of modern times. And we
might mention here that negro jockeys
are not an original American institu-
ton, for we learn that Cresceur, an
African jockey of those days, was one
Of the greatest riders, and earned SO,-
900 sesterces in one year. Verify, in
the price of horses asin other things,
''there is nothing new under the SUM-"