Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1880-06-12
CAN WOMEN DRIVEe
An Old Lfveryman Tells of His Elk,
perfenCe with the Sex.

ALBANY Evening Journal.l
isn't IL rather singular that women never
learn how to drive horse properly ~ remarks
some irate man as he inspecrs tired animal
and finds the bride over its ears and the bits
half way down its throat.
But women can drive" cries champion OF
the SEX. Don't they drive seven or eight miles
TO market with vegetables or loads of hay
Don't they take their babies out 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 a horse much better
than their husbands cam
Can women drive? and do you let them
put TO good natured livery keeper by an in
terested 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 GU anywhere II 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 week come to us for horses. and we
give them good ones, too; but, somehow
WON women fret horses when they drive them so we
Now. look at that sorrel," pointing to one from
which the harness had just been removed. Il
let that horse this morning to bit of woman
with wrists no bigger than my two fingers.
didn't want to let 1T Co. because it's such an
ugly puller. told her II 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 Woodward 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
arou nd those little wrists. and braced her feet
on the dash board, and when she came to cor
ner whisked round 1t on one wheel The rig
came In all right, but that horse won't get
its breath for a week"
do they often meet with accidents and have
smash-up?"
team through dozen hairbreadth escapes and
bring 1t 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 In sight to help her out of the
scrape. They are more apt to lose their heads
In 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 man has the reins."
Further talk developed the fact that women
horses. They forget to blanket them In winter
and to tie them In the shade In the Summer,
They sometimes use the reins as hitching STRAPS.
AID nave ga settled dislike to learning proper
could tell the difference between the surcingle
and the mart1ngale, or had the least idea to
which end of the animal the crupper belonged;
and If compelled to dtvest a horse OF its trap,
pings would undo every buckle In the service
and take the collar of over the animals head.
to all OF which the intelligent beast would sub,
init. as II charmed by being steadily talked to
during the process In the witching tones of q
wOmanS voice.
All of this may be libel on the sex, but 1t is
certainly true that when an old family horse
with ten-minute gait, comes See-sawing down
the street with com1cally reckless air of run
ming away, wOman'S head looks out from I'M
Ger the buggy top, wOman's hand guides the
Steed In its eccentric orbit, and woman's
voice shouts In distinct tones ssWh.o-O-a.a "
at the same moment that the reins are 1erked
and the whip applied, while pedestrians scud to
the sidewalk In terror. However liable a woman
Is 10 run over COW or a street car, she will
always stop or turn ont for baby. RMS is one
OF the Instincts OF her maternal heart 10 which
even 'sPet uD' Pl.a.n-pu is SACRIFICED