The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-07-01
CAN WOMEN DlIvE!
An Old Liveryman Tel . Of HIS EzPe
ence " fth the SIX.


{Albany Evening Journal
"Isn't it rather singular that women
never learn how to drive horse prop
erly?" remarked some irate man, as he
inspected tired animal, and finds the
bride over his ears and the bits half way
down his throat.
''But women can drive" cries cham
pion of the sex. sDont they drive seven
or eight miles to market with vegetables
or loads of hay? Don't they take their
babies out to ride whenever they can get
hold of horse? Why, tl.1re never was
women who couldn't drive, and some OF
them can handle a horse much better
than their husbands"
"Can women drive? And do you let
them handle your best horses?" were
the questions put to good-natured
ivery-keeper by an interested party.
"Drive!' he answered. 81 should
think they could; but as to letting them
our best horses, that is another matter.
We have horses in our stables few men
could drive. We keep what we call safe
horses for ladies' use-the kind that will
go anywhere if you just guide them-old
family nags sensible enough to trot along
and mind their own business, and not
fret if they are pulled two ways at once. )"
"Do you object to letting horses out
for women to driver"
"No, indeed; we have from twelve to
fifteen ladies a week come to us for
horses, and we give them good ones, too;
but, somehow, women fret horses when
they drive, SO we don't care to give them
high-spirited animals. Now, look at that
sorrel, pointing to one from which the
harness had just been removed. '1 let
that horse this morning to bit of a
woman with wrists no bigger than my
two fingers. I didn't want to let it go
because it is such an ugly puller. l told
her it had mouth like iron, but she said
she wanted to take an old aunt that was
visiting her out to see the town, and she
drove off quietly enough. But half an
hour after saw her coming down Wood
ward avenue like streak of lightning,
everybody running to get out OF the way,
and the old aunt hanging on for dear life.
She just had the lines wound around
those little wrists, and braced her feet on
the dashboard, and when she came to q
corner whisked round it on one wheel.
The rig came in all right, but that horse
won't get its breath for week.
"Do you often meet with accidents
and have a s1nash-up?"
"No. It is curious, but woman will
take team through dozen hairbreadth
escapes and bring it back all right. We
have any amount of trouble with men,
who take our best rigs, get on spree,
and break things all to pieces. A woman
is either more cautious, or she will call
upon every man to help her out Of the
scrape. They are more apt to lose their
heads in O crowd or collision, but there is
most always some special providence at
hand to help them. If you notice, the
most disastrous runaways happen when
some man has the reins."
Furtner talk developed the fact that
| women were notconsiderate in their man.
agement of horses. They forget to
| blanket them in winter and to tie them In
| the shade in the summer. They some
times use the reins as hitching straps,
and have a settled dislike to learning
proper names for harness. Not one in a
| hundred could tell the difference between
the surcingle and the martingale, or at
which end of the animal the crupper be-
| longed. and, if compelled to divest q
horse of its trappings would undo every
buckle in the service, and take the collar
VI
which the intelligent beast would sub
NIT, as if charmed by being steadily
talked to during the process in the witch
ing tones of woman's voice.
All of this may be libel on the sex,
but it is certainly true that when on old
family horse, with ten-minute gait,
comes see-sawing down the street with a
comically reckless air of running away, a
woman's head looks out from under the
buggy a woman's hand guides the
steed in its eccentric orbit, and a
woman's voice shouts in distinct tones,
'Wh-o-o-a-a!" at the same moment that
the reins are jerked and the whip is ap-
Piled, while pedestrians scud to the side
walk in terror. However liable a woman
is to run over COW or street-car, she
will always stop or turn out for baby.
This is one of the instincts of her mater
nal heart to which even ''Get up!
gl-a-n-g" is sacrificed.