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FROM THE WHITE HORSE TO LITTLE RHODY.

BY CHARLES M. BARROWS.


Were other means lacking, the progress of the human race might be pretty
accurately gauged by its modes of locomotion. On such a basis of
classification there might be a pedestrian period, a pilgrim period, a
saddle period, a road-wain period, a stage-coach period, and a railway
period.

Relatively considered, each mode of travel thus indicated would be an
index of the necessities and activity of the times. The nomadic peoples
dwelt in a leisurely world, and were content to go a-foot; their wants
were simple, their aspirations temperate; subsistence for themselves and
their flocks was their great care, and only when the grass withered and
the stream dried up did they set forth in quest of fresh pasturage. At
length, however, the dull-thoughted tribular chieftain became curious to
know what lay beyond the narrow horizon of his wilderness, and men bound
on the sandal, girded up their loins, grasped staff, and beat paths up
and down the valleys, trudging behind an ass or a pack-horse that
carried their impedimenta. Another advance, and the man who drove his
beast before him found that the creature was able to carry both his pack
and himself; and training soon enabled the animal to mend his pace and
transport his master rapidly across long stretches of waste country.
Another period elapsed, and ambitious man discovered that, by clearing a
passage for wheels, the load could be shifted from the back of the beast