486 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In order that this one man might stale his palate with dainties, 

 thousands of other men — "serfs," "churls," "villeins," "hinds," 

 " peasants," etc. — were deprived of all but the smallest amount of 

 coarse food that would enable them to live, labor, and reproduce their 

 kind ! In order that he might clothe himself in piled velvet, and his 

 lady " walk in silk attire," they and their wives were confined to a 

 single coarse garment. In order that he might sleep on down in mar- 

 ble halls, they were restricted to a couch of rushes in a fireless and 

 windowless hovel. 



Now, how did this man on the hill-top "so get the start of the 

 majestic world " that all the kernels and sweetmeats in the lives of 

 thousands were his, while only the rinds, the husks, and the shells, 

 were thrown to them ? 



The answer is easy : It came about through the adaptation of the 

 horse to warfare, and the development of defensive armor. Improve- 

 ments in armor made the aggressive, domineering man invulnerable to 

 spear and dagger in the hands of those whom he would oppress. En- 

 sconced in tempered steel, and moved by a horse's mighty motive 

 power, he was irresistible to those who could only oppose to him their 

 own unprotected thews and sinews. 



It is significant to notice how constantly the idea of the horse is 

 associated with the elevation of the few and the degradation of the 

 many under feudalism. In all the tongues of Europe it is the "Man 

 on Horseback " who is the lord and despoiler of the people. The Ger- 

 mans called him " Der Ritter " (the rider), and cognate words desig- 

 nated him in all the divisions of the Teutonic speech. In French the 

 horse is un cheval, and the tyrant of fields and people a chevalier. 

 The Portuguese called him a cavalleiro, the Spaniards a cahallero, and 

 the Italians a cavalliere — all direct derivatives of the Greek and Latin 

 JmbaUas, a horse. In England, where, for reasons that shall be given 

 presently, the people were not crushed down to anything like the ex- 

 tent of their class on the Continent, the name given the Man on Horse- 

 back shows that he never acquired any such arrogant supremacy. 

 There he was merely a knight (Anglo-Saxon cnlht, a youth, an attend- 

 ant, a military follower). 



In the far-off days, ere the centuries had entered their teens, the 

 gentleman who was burning with enthusiasm to earn his bread by the 

 sweat of some one else's brovvs proceeded differently from what he 

 would now. Contrasted with the neat finish of an " operation " in 

 stocks or produce, or the Louisiana Lottery, his methods seem crude 

 and clumsy. Kevertheless, like the methods of most of the processes 

 of primitive people, they were quite effective. 



He provided himself with a stout horse and a suit of armor com- 

 bining all the latest improvements. He then set himself up as the 

 lord and " protector " of as large a collection of land-tillers as he could 

 cajole or force into accepting his " protection." Sydney Smith wittily 



