e the value of horsemen in
ancient warfare, he should read the story of the campaigns of
Hannibal against the Romans in Italy. The first successes of that
great commander--victories which came near changing the history of
the western world--were almost altogether due to the strength lying
in his admirable Numidian cavalry. The Romans were already good
soldiers, their footmen more trustworthy than those which the
Carthagenian general could set against them; but with his horsemen,
as at Cannae, he could wrap in the Roman line and reduce the most
valiant legions to the confused herd which awaited the butcher.

[Illustration: Cavalry Horse]

Although the invention of firearms has somewhat changed the
conditions under which cavalry may be used, making indeed the direct
charge more costly to the assailant than the assailed, it has in no
wise diminished, but rather increased, the value of horses in
military campaigns. In the line of battle horses have become
necessary for the conveyance of field officers and messengers, and
the right arm of battle, the artillery, could not possibly be managed
except by horse-power. The swift marches of modern armies, by
hastening the issue of contests, have spared the world half the woes
of its great campaigns, and are made possible by the ready movement
of supply trains, which could not be effected except by the help of
these creatures. The result is that a large part of the military
strength of any state rests not only in the valor and training of its
fighting men, but in the supply of horses that its fields may afford.
In this connection it is instructive to compare the military
strength of a country like China, where the horse is not a common
element in the life of the people, with that of any of the western
folk who may hereafter have to wrestle with that populous empire.
Some writers, in their efforts to forecast the large politics of the
future, have imagined that when the hardy and obedient Chinaman came
to receive the European training in the military art, the armies of
that country might prove from their numbers a menace to our own
civilization. Such an issue seems in a high degree improbable, for
the reason that the eastern realm could not provide the horses which
would be necessary for the use of invading armies; nor is it at all
likely that the rigid framework of their society will ever be so
altered as to provide an abundance of these animals.

[Illustration: Plough Horses, F