The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1895-01-03
THE HORSE.
The Friend and Companion of Man in
All Ages---Christian and Pagan.
by Wen' IsAlC H. 0hDrWOOU,
From the Western Horseman.

By Gen. Isaac r. Sherwood.
From the Western Horseman.
Upon the trend of civilization, from the
Pharaoh of the Exodus to Gen. Phil Sheridan,
the horse has shared the honOrs of war, the
glamours of love, the wild witchery OF fchivalric
tournament and the gloom and glory of the
holy Crusades.
Imight have said from Absaom to Sheridan,
only happened to remember that when Absa-
lom was caught by his Curls in the gnarled
oaks branches he was riding an ass By q law
of Moses the Jews were forbidden to ride horses,
as the horse was then regarded solely as an
engine of war, and Moses desired to make his
people pastoral nation, devoted to the arts of
peace. Who that has ever ridden a Rocky
mountain burro in the Garden of the Gods lin
Colorado) but remembers how this willy and
treacherOus brute takes every available OppOr-
tunity to scrape off his rider on some road side
tree? The Rocky mountain burro is the lineal
descendant Of Absalom's ass, with all his tricks
and devious deviltries. Had Absalom, with
the flowing locks, rode horse, he might have
won the fight.
From time immemorial the horse has Deen
immortalized with his immortal masters. lie
has been perpetuated in stone and iron and
bronze, with the poets, philosophers and sol
diers of the world. In Berlin it IS Frederick
the Great and his horse. In Trafalgar Square,
London, it is Wellington and his horse In
Washington it is Washington and his horse,
Grant and his horse, and glorious old Pap
Thomas and his horse.
On the obelisks of dead old Egypt; on the
arch of Trajan at Rome, and the Arch of TTi-
umph, that Napoleon built in Paris to lebrate
his victories, the horse and rider are mt piled
on every ascending circle.
Miriam, taking her timbrels to swell the
song of triumph which Moses gave TO the
poetry of the ages, in celebrating the drown
ing Of Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red sea,
says:
gloriously. The horse and rider He hath
thrown into the sea-"
Here the inspired prophecies gives the horse
first mention over the soldier; doubtless on his
merits, AZ the more humane of the two.
Darwin does not tell us, in his great work
on the evolution of man, the number of years
that elapsed between the development of the
man-like ape to the ape-like man, but since
history began, w'th its dim and uncertain
light, we belieyS ,..dt the horse with hoofs to
have been co-existent with the devil with
hoofs, and co-existent with the ape-like man,
If not eo-equal.
Professor Leid says the pre- historic man had
prehistoric horse for his companion. The
same high authority says that while it is true
that Columbus discovered no horses with the
native Indian tribes when he discovered
America, there is no longer room for
doubt that the horse lived on the
American continent before the race of Adam,
and that he lived alongside of the mastodOn as
the companion of the prehistoric man. And
Professor Leidy says the horse was ambu-
lating over the hills of the old world before the
advent of man.
DIR. Allen, in his great work entitled Civil
izatiOn," gives an imaginary picture of the
first arrival of the barbaric Huns in Europe i'm
the fourth century. The chiefs are all mount,
ed on magnificent horses, richly CaparisOned,
that, as Byron says in "Mazeppa," look as il
the speed of thought were in their limbs
1t was during the period of Roman civila-
tion, when physical strength and beauty were
regarded as the supreme glory of man, that we
find the horse the chief factor of public enter.
tainments. At the time of the Cesars the Cir.
Gus Maximus of Rome was the chief resort OF
the Roman pOpulace-plebeians, patricians,
Senators, Generals and EmperOrs. This CON
tanned the most elaborate grand stand in the
world, capable of seating S0,000 people. Judge
from the picture given by DIR. Allen that II was
arranged somewhat like the new grand stand
In Cleveland, where the plebeians, who pay
dollar, sit In the side rows, and the plutocrats,
who have dead-head tickets, sit on seats OF
royal plush iu private boxes.
And the Roman chariot races must have been
far more exciting than our own race events,
either OF the bangta tails or trotters. Five chari-
OTIS, each with four horses, were entered for
each race The driver stood in his two-wheeled
car, tnot bikes, If you please), with his reins
around his back. As this was danger
Gus, in case of a foul" each driver
carried bill-book in his belt to cut loose il
thrown. The race was seven times around
the circuit, and some twenty-five of these races
were pulled of every race day. The victor
would descend from his car and take his
money mot bouquets), amid tremendous APP
plause from the grand stand. Many of the
charioteers who were winners grew very
wealthy. The Roman popplace went wild over
these races, and the list of horses, with their
names and colors, were passed around among
the patricians, about the same as we are doing,
$500 years later.
The status of civilization then was the same
as now, on the quarter stretch as the riders
often had bloody fights, in which bin, hooks were
used, evidently with as much ability and veloc.
ity as razOrs are now used in our modern Afro
American picnic. Betting was also as fast and
furious as In modern Chicago. The grand
stand also became involved, including the box
seats Of the senators and plutocrats, and the
Emperor Justinian well nigh lost his crown
(not the crown ofhis head) In consequence OF
a dispute that originated In the Circus Maxi
mus races
In Bulfnch's fascinating book on ''Kinp
Arthur and His Knights" which includes the
heroic age Of chiyalry, we hnd the horse the
conspicuous figure Of every joust and tourps
nent. cscapade and Eomsnce. Ho is pzolai