Vol. LYII. No. 2548. 
THE PASSING OF THE OX. 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 26, 1898. 
*1 PER YEAR. 
THE HORSE HAS CROWDED HIM OUT. 
Farewell To a Steady Old Citizen. 
Old-Time Motive Power.— If one might turn 
backward the panorama of years to the golden Sum¬ 
mer of 1849, and choose a point of view on the over¬ 
land route of the gold hunters as they set expectant 
faces toward California, one could see frequently a 
moving picture composed of long lines of yoked oxen 
hitched to the canvas-covered ships of the prairie, the 
wagons being loaded with women, children and what¬ 
ever household gods and goods were considered worth 
taking to the land of gold and sunshine. The heavy 
wains creak, the tall teamsters crack their long whips 
with the precision of long practice, or flip the ear of 
a leader with the unerring aim of a sharpshooter. 
There are shrill cries of women and children, a dog 
barks at snake or prairie dog, and the commands of 
the leader o f 
the caravan 
sound occasion¬ 
ally in a deep 
bass voice. 
But the power 
that is doing 
the pulling says 
nothing. The 
patient oxen 
lean against 
the wide yokes, 
trying to take 
the strain on 
the part that is 
galled the 
least, blinking 
their eyes at the 
lash, switching 
their tails at 
the too-attent- 
ive flies, and 
pass on into 
the gathering 
dusk. But as 
day after day 
passes, the load 
of provisions in 
the wagons 
grows lighter) 
goods are 
thrown away, 
or worn out or 
traded off i n 
the hurry to get 
through, and as 
game and food 
get scarce, ox 
after ox is con¬ 
demned for beef, and their bones mingle with those 
of their wild cousin, the buffalo, and the skeletons of 
red men and white men that help mark the trail. 
Time and Its Changes. —There is an interesting 
semblance between the scene on the prairies a half 
century ago, and the broader view of the march of 
civilization that we can take to-day. The men with 
the oxen went through from the Missouri to the Golden 
Gate in four months, if lucky. To-day, one goes on 
the Sunset Express from ocean to ocean in four days. 
The ox has brought the train of civilization thus far ; 
he has plowed the prairies for years, until the steam 
plow or the beautiful Percheron horse has shoved him 
aside, and now, as a motive power, he is out of date 
in much the greater part of the country. At the 
Columbian Exposition great groups of western people 
gathered around the yokes of oxen, an absolute 
novelty to many thousands of country-bred people, or 
a pathetic picture of the past to the grizzled pioneers. 
The ox was actually a curiosity on the very prairies 
he helped to break. 
However, in the rougher portions of the country, 
the mountains of Tennessee and Carolina, rugged 
Pennsylvania and northern New York, and rock-rib¬ 
bed New England, the wooden-bonded workers still 
keep a footing. Where rocks are plentiful and roads 
are steep, and stumps and roots block plow and cart, 
the temper of the average ox is still superior to the 
temper of the average horse. The ox may look un¬ 
utterable things when he strikes a bowlder, and he 
may long for the power to say “cuss words”, but 
still he remembers that he who keepeth his temper 
is better than he who taketh a city, and he heaves 
against the unyielding rock again and again like a 
snowplow bucking a drift in the Sierras. 
Yet there are exceptions to the rule of mildness in 
oxen. Owners of the horned teams know that, occa¬ 
sionally, there is an ox capable of getting “ riled ”. 
Up to a certain point, he will bear work and whip, 
cracking and yelling, but when that point is reached— 
clear the track ! An ox on the rampage is no joke. 
He will run away with his mate, the cart, load and 
all. He laugheth at the whips and the shouting of 
the captains ; he remembereth the days when he was 
a young steer, and he proceedeth to steer for himself, 
and landeth the whole caravan in a tangle in the 
ditch. 
Why the Ox Gives Way.—Even on the rocky 
farms of New England, however, the ox is losing 
ground. He is passing—passing slowly as is his wont— 
but passing away. As he is not merely picturesque, 
but in his way noble, pathetic, full of patience and 
power, it is worth while to stop and look at him be¬ 
fore he gets out of sight. The Percheron horse, raised 
on western prairies, can be landed in Connecticut, 
and sold about half as low as the price of a good ox 
team—from $100 to $200 a pair. The latter price is, of 
course, exceptional for oxen. About $125 is'a fair 
value. Moreover the heavy draught horse can be put 
at ordinary farm work as young as an ox—at three 
years old, occasionally at two. These large horses, 
too, if rightly handled, will work with a great deal of 
patience and intelligence among rocks, in logging, 
etc. Consequently, it is to-day apparent in roughest 
New England that the ox is yielding ground to the 
more versatile draught horse. The latter will not 
only pull and haul, he can be hitched up for a jog off 
to market in the evening, or to church on Sunday. 
He is not a trotter, yet he can trot at a “ jog ” speed. 
While the southern negro or “ cracker ” will hitch up 
a cow or ox for light driving to town, it is too slow 
for the northerner. Even the city girls, who think a 
straw ride by moonlight with a team of oxen would be 
“ too lovely for any use ”, soon grow tired of the slow, 
heaving motion, and get out and walk back across lots. 
Occasionally one will see a long procession of yoked 
cattle filing 
through the 
country in 
charge of some 
dealer. The 
varied colors, 
the long, un¬ 
dulating line 
following the 
leaders, make a 
striking pic¬ 
ture, which any 
one would 
pause to see. 
At the New 
England fairs, 
some beautiful 
oxen are seen, 
so closely 
matched in 
color, size and 
conformation, 
that one won¬ 
ders how their 
owners can tell 
Buck from 
Bright, or Tom 
from Jerry. 
The ox is also 
capable of 
being trained 
and doing his 
trick act like a 
trained dog. 
With the ut¬ 
most delibera¬ 
tion, a pair will 
mount the ends 
of a see-saw 
plank and balance each other, rising and falling with 
a slowness that would give the pendulum of grand¬ 
father’s clock a fit of impatience. They will lie down 
and get up at the word of command, or wheel and per¬ 
form martial evolutions. This is not so wonderful 
when it is remembered that the oxen of the South 
African tribes are taught to guard flocks from wild 
beasts or robbers, and to charge an enemy in battle. 
Even in this country it has been noticed that cattle 
will often form a cordon around sheep, and with ready 
horns ward off the attacks of depredating dogs or 
wolves. 
Some of the finest oxen shown at Chicago came from 
Fairfield County, Conn. There are several dealers in 
this region who buy up pairs and ship them to various 
parts of the country as they obtain orders. A good 
pair will weigh 4,000 pounds, or more, and it is easy 
to see that they have an advantage in inertia over the 
average farm horses which weigh about 1,200 pounds 
DUTCH BELTED OXEN; FROM THE LAND OF SLOW THINGS. Fro. 360 
