The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1920-01-06
The Glory of the Horse.
From the Memphis CommerciaI-Appeal.

They sold dozen fire horses in Memphis
Monday. They will sell more fire horses this
week.
The people of Memphis at the end of this
wear will know the fire horses no more Tor
ever. The clatter of their heavy feet adown
the hard paved street will no longer break
the silence of the early morning hours. The
little boys and the little girls will no more
be taken to the engine houses and there be
lifted in the arms of the firemen and held
up to pat the fire horses on the nose.
The fire fighter was always a hero. The
fire horse shared his human companions
glory He who used fire in work or battle
is acclaimed as great. The man in mythology
who attempted to steal the sacred fires was
admired and revered even if he did wrong
act.
The horse has gone from the fire depart
ment. During the late great war he passed
from the cavalry and did not even gam rec,
ognition as beast of burden. Here and
there he pulled the artillery into line, but
the going was hard and he quickly died
A regiment of heavy artillery, most OF
them Tennessee boys and many of them
Memphis boys, used up their horses IN ten
davis They then dragged their guns with
ropes. Just as the armistice came they Sc
cured tractors.
From the beginning of time the horse has
been the companion of man IN all OF his
glorious and heroic exploits. See the place
mythology gave the centaurs
In the early days a Roman knight clothed
himself in armor and then, astride of
horse, leaped into a chasm and the chasm
closed. The tradition was that it would close
when the finest thing went into it. The fin
est thing Rome had was not an armored
knight, but a knight on horseback.
You remember the stories of the feats OF
Alexander? You also remember the name of
Alexanders horse?
The greatest fighting in front of Troy was
done by men in horse-drawn charlots.
The greatest piece of sculpture that ever
came from human hands is the Colleoni.
Colleoni is a man on horseback. The origi-
nal is in Venice There is a good reproduc-
ton in New York and also in Chicago.
The greatest picture of war is that OF
the heroes of all ages marshaled together
They are on horseback.
The greatest story of fighting in the days
of chivalry is the description of feats of the
man at arms on the field or AShDy lhey
were on horseback
You remember the picture of Napoleon
reviewing his army after he was emperor?
Thousands of men are galloplng by. Inc en-
peror and his staff are astride their horses
at the reviewing stand.
The greatest English war poem was writ
ten by Tennyson. 1t is "The Charge OF the
Light Brigade"
Unto the valley of death rode the Six
Hundred"
The secretary interrupts and says that the
charge was a mistake made by the Earl OF
Cardigan, who was in command of the Light
Brigade. It may have been a mistake, but it
was magnificent just the same.
You remember the picture of the famous
charge of the Scottish Greys? They are on
horseback.
Harking back to the Scriptures, the war
horse of the Old Testament is just as heroic
as any man warrior of that book.
The most heroic feat of the French in the
ill-starred campaign of 1870 was the cavalry
charge by General Gallift against the Ger
mans.
Talk about your aeroplane races, your au-
tomobie races, the most blood acceleratlng
contest that men ever saw were the morse
races that were the pastime of ladies and
gentlemen who are now in the lean shank.
The best piece of descriptive writing that
ever went into an American newspaper was
the Courier-Jo Journals story of the contest at
Louisville, many years ago, when len
Brock, the pride of Kentucky, beat Mollle
Mccarthy, who came out of the west, car
rving the fortunes of the men and women OF
the Golden State.
All, me! We saw it when we were in knee
breeches and even now we can near the
song of the negroes in the fields of Kentucky
in the after years, telling of the glory glad
dened Blue Grass State on that day.
1t is an age of iron, steam, gasoline, also
gas The tank, an ungainly thing, lumbers
forward in the battle line. The ugly truck
with the engine in 'front.' takes the place of
the big Norman draft horse.
No longer do the mules bray when across
the field from the big house comes the sill
vered tones of the dinner horn. Now when
the dinner blast falls on the air the only re-
spouse will be the ceasing of the ''chug-
chug" of the Fordson tractor
The hoof beats of the fire horse will fall
upon the street no more; instead there will
come an engine snorting and roaring like
the devil escaping from the internal regions.
But if the horse has had its day it has
been a great one. He has contributed his
part to the glory of sculpture, the beauty
of painting and to the rhythmic charm of
poetry.
1t was in the manger of a horse that
Christ was born. A horse bore upon his back
Roman captain who was present when
Christ was dying, and, later, yielded up his
life because he had become a follower of
this same Christ.