The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1876-05-07
Model Coaching.

The Centennial yoar ought to be favora-
Die to our emancipation from foreign
fashions. II should give strength and
pride TO American feeling. ana help us to
conform our life To oar politics, our eli
mate, cur physical geography. and our
national tastes. 1t i weak people that
copy ana a weak iunn that imitatts. The
young New Yorker who brings back from
a residence in England the muiton-clop
whisker and the London club drawl aud
slang. is poor product, neither fairly
British nor truly American.
II would probably bc use less to ask any OF
these initiative youth, What Is the origin OF
the fashion Of banging the tails OF the
horses you driver Al the bottom of every
fashion is a reason. The reason OF this
fashion was local and logical. Ii belonged
10 England, and il out OF place in America.
II originated in farming DISTRICTS il has no
fitness in city. The fox hunters FIRST
banged the tails of British horses. They
did It to prevent the catching Of the long
hair in the hedge tops and bushes. and the
consequent thinning out and Raging OF the
tails and knottiug them with huTrS, bark,
andstichs. The fox hunters were the strong
est social element III Great Britain. ana the
fashion Of their horses tails inevitably eX-
tended Ia London, and there di-ngured
the animals used only to draw carriages
Fox hunting never obtained in this
country; but the hedSe-leaping huuter p,
banged tail has been brought to our elite.
by travelled imitators aud English grooms,
and II turnout IN our avenues of team of
two or ( ur horses with natural tails is
a. 4
whiskCr is turned IN disapprOval.
But there II portion Of our country,
unknown 10 our club house youth. where
coach team can bc seen IN its natural
spicndor, and where maii-coach driving IL q
high art the English never attained 10. In
the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada,
and the Coast Range the turnpikcs are
narrow shelves, overhauging rivers and
torrents, and creased into the SIDES of the
mountains which they cross on grades that
necessarily wind and twist, and that are
frequently ana steeply broken 10y Iayines
and deprc,Sious. The characteristics of
these mountain roads are precp.c - on one
side a width of track, with occasional
turnout-, sufficient only for one wagon,
sharp curves, and long down and up
grades. The stage coach schedule time on
them Is from ten 10 twelve miles an hour.
The coaches are drawn by six hors IS. The
drivers routes average nny-nve miles.
The stock is the best that can be bought
strong, quick, ana spirited. The coach is
loaded with frlm twelve to fittccl pas
sengcrs with their baggage, and very
heavy tnted states mail The weight is
80 great. and the down grades are - steep
ana long, that powerful breaks are indis-
pensably necessary. The wheel horses
were never foaled that could stop aud
hold one Of these loaded coaches when
fairly in motion downward. The entire
team must be kept out Of the way of the
coach, and generally on the 5allop.
only twelve or fourteen inches Of spaoe
separates the wheels from sheer preclpiee.
or u forty-degreo descent of hundreds Of
feet. The Upper Sacramento river is a thin
white ribbon as seen from the top OF the
coach on its mountain shelf. A shy of the
team from blankcted Indian, or swerve
OF the carriage for single foot, might
shoot II to utter destruction, fifteen hun
dred feet downward. The coach that slid
around the icc-covered point on the shelf
ovcrhanging the Umpqua in Oregon, fell
thousand feet. Its fragments when
reached were shockingly bloody. On the
Yreka road !, shown to the tray eller,
through the timber, huge fallen pine
which is historical. The lever of the brake
broke short of on q steep down pitch.
There was . sharp curve ahead on the
m0antsia ta~ yss driver eapg his lash