Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1895 — Some of the First. [ARTICLE]

Some of the First.

The first boat was a log bestridden by the navigator, who paddled it with a stick. Hollowing the log with a stone celt was the next step. The first tool made by human hands was a celt, or handleless axe of chipped stone. With it a man can kill or skin game, hack wood or spike an enemy. A handle put upon the celt transversely makes it an axe; a handle longitudinally makes an arrow. The bow, according to Prof. F. N. Cushing, came long afterward. The first house was a cave. Of that there can be no doubt. The buildings of to-day can be traced through Grebk and Roman sources back to the Egyptian originals, which again grow from the forms of the ancient rocic temples. The'jfirst horse had five toes and was about the size of a fox. The middle toe is left. The others have perished from lack of use, though traces of them are to be found in the “splint” on the side of a horse’s leg. The first bridge was a footlog. A handrail came next, then the rude braces which made a larger span possible. By tli© time of Caesar, as every schoolboy knows, bridges had become formidable structures.