The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1899-12-01
FAMOUS HORSES
FAMOUS MEN.
Have Been Comrades In Battle
and Friends in Peace.
FAMED IN SONG AND STORY
General Sherwood Talks Interestingly of
Equine Heroes and Their Masters
and the Place of the Bore
In History.

In a recent number of the American
Sportsman, Gen. /. r. Sherwood has
this to say of Heroes, Horse and HUI
man.:
Darwin does not tell US in his great
book on the evolution of the human race
the number of years that elapsed be-
tween the development of the man
like ape to the ape-like man; but since
history was born out of the womb of
the ages, we know that the horse with
hoofs has been co-eXiStent with the
devil with hoofs. and co-eXistent with
ape-like man. Prof. Leidy, very high
authority on the prehistoric man, says
this evolution from the ape had a pre-
historic horse for a companion. We
have the same high authority for the
assertion that the horse was cavorting
in a wild state over the American con-
tinent before Columbus discovered
America in 1892. 1t is true that Colum-
bus discovered no horses among the
North American Indians at that time.
Neither did he discover any mastadons,
or any of the prehistoric races known to
have preceded the Indian,
These few Introductory words are not
given to shed any rays Of light on the
hero horses of modern times, but simply
to impress the average reader with the
idea that an animal that has been for
at least six thousand years the helpful
friend and companion Of man, in war
and peace, is not liable to drop out of
either mans utilities or pleasures, even
in an age in which all sentiment and
chivalric feeling is supplanted by the
sordid spirit OF commercialism. Be
fore the dawn of christianity the horse
was least regarded as a helper to man.
BY law of Moses the Jews were for
hidden to ride horses. as the horse
among the ancient Hebrews was re-
garded only as an engine of war. Moses
determined to make his people pas
toral people, devoted solely to the be-
nign arts of peace.
In the middle ages, which includes the
heroic age OF chivalry, the horse first
shared the story of HIS master in the
jousts and tournaments of the armored
Knights of Chivalry. Here he first be-
came prominent in the songs of the
Troubadores. When knights fought or
horseback in steel clad armor with
lances or spears, 1t was considered g
brutal act to wound a horse From thai
day to this all the great poets have suns
of the horse in all their minstrely. The
! horse is the chief factor in that thrill
ing, dramatic poem, "Mazeppa," ont
of Lord Bryon's best, If not the best
in the English language. Sir Waltel
Scott in immortal Marmion, puts int
| Lady Herron's sweet mouth of th
| story of Young Lockinivar, one of tn
most thrilling musical gems in Englisl
| literature. And Young Lockinvar'
horse is the hero of the romantic esca
| pade. And the finest dramatic poem
of our great civil war is Sheridan
Ride" by T. Buchanan Reed. in whicl
the black stallion that Sheridan rode L
winchester, twenty miles away, is in
dissoIubly linked with immortal her
| Sheridan.
| Among the famous war horses o
modern times that have been immort
allied In song and story, the most note
are Marengo, Copenhagen, Cincinnati
Traveller, Lexington and Winchester
| the famous war horses, in the orde
named OF Napoleon, Wellington, Gran
Lee, Sherman and Sheridan. Winches
ter, enjoys the unique distinction Q
having his bones mounted by a taxi
Idermist, and can now be seen In