The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-07-23
Can Women Driye9

sIsn't it rather singular that wo-
| men never learn how to drive horse
properly2" remarks some irate man,
as he inspects tired animal and
finds the bride over its ears and the
bits half down its throat?
| "But women can drive" cries a
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 whenever they can get hold of
a horse? Why, there never was a
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?"
were the questions put to a good
natured ivery-keeper by an inter-
ested party.
| "Drive?'' he answered, II should
think they could; but as to letting
them our best horses, that is another
matter. We have horses ID our sta
bles 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
| ~ Tttonv, 10 dos oopo O n nc for h ORC ao
and 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 ami
mails. Now, look at that sorrel," !"
pointing to one from which the har-
ness had just been removed. "I let
that horse this morning to bit of
woman with wrists no bigger than
my two fingers. 1 didn't want to let
it go, because its such an ugly puller.
| 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 eui-
etly enough. But half an hour after
[ saw her coming down Woodward
Avenue like a 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 dash
| board, and when she came to cor
ner whisked around it on one wheel.
The rig came in all right, but that
horse won't get It's breath for a
| week"
seDo they often meet with acei.
dents and have smash-up?"
"No, it 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 out our best rigs, get on spree,
and break things all to pieces. A wo-
man 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 a
crowd or collision, but there is most
always some special providence at
hand to help them. If you notice,
the most disastrous runaways hap
PSA w hCH 6OHO iltdA hClo ChO Old
Further talk developed the fact
that women were not considerate in
their management of horses. They
forget to blanket them in winter and
to tie them in the shade in the sum-
mer. They sometimes use the reins
as hitching straps, and have set
tied dislike to learning proper names
for harness. Not one in hundred
could tell the difference between the
surcingle and the martingale, or had
the least idea to which end of the
animal the crupper belonged; and if
compelled to diyest horse Of its
trappings would undo every buckle
in the service, and take the collar off
over the animals head, to all of
which the intelligent beast would
submit, as if charmed by being stead
lily talked to during the process in
the witching tones of women's
voice.
All of this may be libel on the
sex, but it is certainly true that when
an old family horse, with a 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
top, woman's hand guides the steed
in its eccentric orbit, and woman's
voice shouts in distinct tones,
"Wh-o-o a." at the same moment
that the reins are jerked and the
whip applied, while pedestrians scud
to the sidewalk in terror. However
liable 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 maternal heart to
which even 'sget upl gl-a-n-g" is sac
rificed. d.-Atbany Eveniag Journal.
The moon was once region of intense
activity, as is clearly shown by the vast