The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1905-10-20
THAT NOBLE ANIMAL, THE HORSE
PORTLAND Journal.

PORTLAND Journal.)
Oregon among other good qualities
is an excellent horse country, and as
fine specimens of the equine species
as are produced anywhere can be
raised in this state. Good horses now
bring good price, and horse breeding
has again become proftable-that is.
if one raises good horses.
Recently scientific explorers dug up
the fossil remains of some gigantic
animals in this state, and among
them were found samples Of the horse
when he was much smaller than now,
and had three toes on each foot. This
animal had his habitat here long
time ago. Though the aboriginal
horse roamed over this region--or
that portion of it not yet sea-bed
--he became extinct and disappeared
long before man, SO far as any evil
dence shows, appeared on this con-
tinent. Not until the Spaniards came
in the sixteenth century was the horse
reintroduced into what is now the
United States. From them the In
dians procured horses, ancestors of
those which the Shoshones and Nez
Perces supplied 100 years age to Lewis
and Clark, except for which they
would never have reached the mouth
of the Columbia. So long ago the
horse was a good friend of Oregon.
A few years ago, when bicycles
were fast coming into use, and cleo
tricity was being utilized for trans
portation purposes, it was predicted
that there would thenceforth be but
little demand for horses, and some
went SO far as to foretell his practical
extinction. The demand for horses
did decline, and prices went down to
figures that rendered horse-raising un-
profitable, but not altogether ON ac
count of bicycles and electric cars, for
now freight as well as passenger auto
mobiles have come into common use,
taking the place of great many hors-
es, and yet horses are in demand, too,
and there seems to be about as many
of them in proportion to people as
ever. Durng the past five years the
price Of good horses has increased an
nualy from IS to $40 per head, and
horse breeding was never more profit
able than now. 1t may be overdone
in the future, but at present the de-
mand exceeds the supply.
However much horseless vehicles
may multiply, the horse will still be
found in very general use, both for
business and pleasure, and he can be
raised in Oregon as cheaply and sue
cessfully as in any state in the union.
THE MONSTER AMONG MoNAKCHs.
(Journal.
Mark Twain's latest publication is
not humorous. 1t is terribly earnest
and truthful, being scathing arraign-
ment of that most iniquitious of mon
archs, Leopold of Belgium. This old
royal reprobate, Mark Twain asserts
in his blistering brochure, has coined
millions out of the very blood and
tears of the region called, as if in bit
ter irony, the Congo Free State.
Leopold is the absolute ruler of the
millions of people Of that state, or
colony, few If any of whom probably
are less fit morally to be ruler.
Twenty years ago when his rule
there began, there were $4,000. 900
people in that country, while now
there are only 15,000,000. Mark
Twain calls Leopold "the king with
10,000,000 people on his SOUL" surely
heavy burden, even for king. Ac-
cording to Mr.. Clemens it is an organ
lied system of plunder aud outrage
which this king has maintained in
Africa for 20 years. "The natives are
told to collect rubber for the kings
commercial agents. If the full tale
is not brought in, the kings troops
wipe out village with sword and fire
as an example to other villages. If a
village gets bebindhand with its sup
plies, men, women and children are
ruthlessly MANNED and butchered.
And the agents demand so much that