The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1895-10-04
ONE ON THE HORSE.
Civilization Downs the Lordly CaYuse
on his Native Heath.

on his Native Heath.
The cayuse is rapidly passing
over the great divide, says an ex-
change, and soon the last Of his
race will face the inevitable and ex-
pire TO satisfy the cravings of the
human stomach. 1t is, perhaps,
according to the eternal fitness of
things that here in Eastern Oregon
where the first horse, the eo-hip-
pus, nipped the cenozoic herbage
from the hole in the ground out of
which our rolling prairies have
grown, the beginning Of his des-
truction should occur. Truly the
cayuse is Of royal descent, if length
of pedigree can be taken as a meas
ure Of nobility, for the first horse,
though no larger than sheep with
the tariff off him, was cotemporary
with the earliest vertebrates, and
has seen the great animal of the
earth pass.away. He has survived
them all, because he was of all the
innumerable types of animal life,
the fttest. The plesiosaurus chew
ed grass for breakfast with him,
but the plesiosaurus vanished cent
uries ago! The megatherium fed
on the top branches of the trees, a
beast so large that the horse seem
ed to him but a microbel The
pterodactyl became an iambic, shed
his pter and winked out The
sabre toothed tiger with a head as
large as a water bucket and paw
like boxing glove devoured his
species, but the horse survived him.
Granivora, carnivora, ymnivora all
vanished long ago from the earth
leaving but their bones to show
their types-types that printed
their story on the pages Of the great
geological book Of Nature. But
the cayuse stayed, because he was
always a slayer. It was a long
time ago, my friend, when the lit
tie horse rehearsed for his first
bucking matchl II was long
time ago that his little bones were
turned to stone down on the fly
leaf of the geological book! 1t is a
long way down into the eocene
formation to where his petrifed
bones bear silent but convincing
evidence of his antiquity Down
to where the clay beds that cover
ed his bones cons ago turned to
stonel Down 1900 feet below
where his descendants now crop the
bunch-grass from the undulating
plainsl Yes indeedl 1t was long
time agol Year by year century by
century, the dust, the sediment,
the detritus from the hills accumu-
lated over these petrified bones un.
til they were buried nearly half a
nsile deep. Nor was that all; after
they were buried the John Day
river, year by year and with inf
nate slowness, cut out channel
down through the rocks until after,
no one knows how many centuries
of centuries the little bones are
again brought to light. The cay
use grew up with the country, 1900
feet Of it, and is at least that much
above his ancestors. But his day
is done. Nature could not down
him, but civilization will. He
stood the saddle and the harness,
but the slaughter-house, the tin
can and the hippophagous anthro-
poid called man have measured
and marked the circle of his ex-
istence. The rubber.footed bike
and the electric current has des-
troyed his usefulness, the ruminat-
ing animal requires the grass and
be must give way to the new con-
ditions. Behold the end of himl
Knocked in the head, a hawser is
fastened to his hide which is strip
ped ruthlessly from him, the haw-
ser being used because it requires
something horser than the horse to
peel him. The carcass is hung up
by the heels and the inside and
buck removed. But let us trace
his career no further, for we are not
disposed to eat him. Whence he
came we know, but for the sake Of
our stomachs let US not inquire in
to the whittier into which he dis
appears.