Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-07-23
Can Women Drive?

Isn't IL IhtucI cInHuiuI tuat WOuou
never learn how to drive horse prop
erly ?" remarks some irate man as he
incpects q tired animal. and 6nds the
bride over its ears. and the bits half
way down it's throat.
"But women con drive" cries a
champion of her sex. Don't they
drive seven or eight miles to market
with vegetables or loads of hay ;? Don't
they take their babies cut to ride when
ever they can get hold of horse ?
Why, there never was woman who
couldn't drive, and some of them can
handle horse much better than their
husbands can"
"Can women drive? and do you let
them handle your best horses p were
the questions put to u good natured
Evrry keeper by an interested party.
"Drive," answered. the letter-out of
equiues, ~ should think they could,
but as for letting them our best horses,
that is another matter. We have
horses in our stable 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 bust
ness aud not fret if they are pulled two
ways at once"
DO you object to letting horses out
for women to drive p
"No, indeed; we have from twelve
to fifteen ladies a week come to us for
horses, aud we give them good ones.
too, but somehow women fret horses
when they drive them, so We don't care
to give them high spirited animals.
Now look ut that sorrel," pointing to
one from whom the harness had just
been removed. 81 let that horse this
morning to u bit of woman with wrists
NO bigger than my two fingers. didn't
want to let it go because its such an ug-
ly pull r. l told her it had mouth
like iron, but she said she wanted to
take All old aunt that was visiting her
out to see the town, and she drove OIL
quietly enough, but half AL hour after
saw her coming down Wood ward av-
epue like u streak of lightning, every.
body 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 blaced
her feet Oh the dashboard, and when
she came 10 corner whisked around it
on ono wheel. The rig came in all
right, bat that horse won't get its
breath for week."
do they often meet with accidents
and have q smashup?'
"No. 1t is curious. but woman
will take team through dozen hair
breadth 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 eau
tious. or she will call upon every man
in sight to help her out of the scrape.
They are more apt to lose their head in
q crowd or collision, but there is most
always some special providence at hand
to help them. II you notice. the most
disastrous runaways happen when some
msn has the reins.'
Further talk developed the fact that
women we're not cOnsiderate in their
management OF horses. They forget 10
blanket them in winter and to tie them
in the shade in the summer. They
sometimes use the reins as hitching
straps, and have settled dislike to
learning proper names for harness.
Not Que in u hundred could tell the
difference between the surcingle and
the martingale, or have the least idea
to which end of the animal the crupper
belonged, and if compelled to divest n
horse Of its trappings would undo every
buckle in the service, and take the col
lar of over the animals head, to all OF
which the intelligent beast would sub
NIT, ~ if charmed by being steadily
talked to during the process in the
witching tones of u wOman's voice.
All Of this may be libel on the sex,
but it is certainly true that when an
old family horse, with ten-minute
gait, comes seesawing down the street,
with comically reckless air of running
away, a woman's head looks out from
unuer the buggy top, woman's hand
guides the steed in its eccentric orbit,
and woman's voice shouts in distinct
tones, Wh.o-o-a-a!' ut the same mo-
ment that the reins are jerked and the
whip applied, while the pedestrians
scud to the sidewalk in terror. How
ever liable woman is to run over a
COW, or a street car, she will always
stop or turn out for baby. This IS
one of the instincts of her maternal
heart. to which even "get up! gl-a-n-g!"
is sacrificed.