, 1880-09-06
Can Women Drive?

ISL 3 IL IAtuoE SInKuAhK, tuht WOM-
en- never learn how to drive o horse
properly ?" remarks some irate man as
he inspects tired animal, and finds
.he bride over its ears and. the bits
half way 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? DOM
they take their babies out 10 ride when
ever they Can get hold of a horse :?
Why there never was a woman who
couldn't drive. and some of them can
handle a horse much better than their
b usbands can"
"Can women drive? and do you let
them handle your best horses ?" we're
the questions put to goOd-natured
livery keeper by an interested party.
"Drive," answered the letter out of
equipes, 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 60 anywhere if you just guide
them-oid family nags, sensible enough
to trot along and minl their own busi-
ness and not fret if they are pulled
two ways at once"
"Do you object to letting horses out
for women to drlve?'
No, indeed; we have from twelve
to fifteen ladies week come to us for
horses, and we give them good ones,
too, but, somehow women fret horses
hen they drive them, so we don't care
to give them high-spiritcd animals.
Now look at that sorrel. pointing to
one from whom the harness had ust
been removed; g let that horse this
morning to bit Of woman with wrists
no digger than my two fingers. l didn't
want to let it go because it's 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
quietly enough. But half an hour
ar.er saw her coming down Wood
ward avenue like a streak of lightning,
every body running to get out OF the
way, aud her old aunt hanging on for
dear life. Sac ust had the lines wound
around those little wrists, and braced
her feet on the dash board, aud when
she came to Corner whisked around
right, but that horse won't get its
breath for week.
DO you often meet with accidents
and have u smash up?'
"NO. 1t Is curious, but woman
will take team through y dczen 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 heads
III a crowd or collision. but there is
most always some special providence
at hand to help them. If you notice,
the most disastrous runaways happen
hen some man has the reins."
Further talk developed the TACT that
women were hot cOsiderate in their
management of horses. They forget to
! blanket them in winter and to tie them
| in the shade in the summer. They
sometimes use the hitching straps, and
have a settled dislike to learning proper
names for harness. Not one in hun
dred could tell the difference between
the surcingle aud the martiDgale, or
had the least idea to which end OF the
animal the crupper belonged, and If
compelled to divest a 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 il
charmed. by being steadily talked to
during the process in the witching
tones of a womans voice.
All this may be libel on the sex.
but it is certainly true that when an old
family horse, with ten-minute gait
comes sea-sawing down the street with
d comically reckless air of running
away, a woman's head looks out from
under the buggy top, a woman's hand
guides the ste. d in Its eccentric orbit,
and woman's voice shouts in distinct
tones, Wh-o-o a-a," at the same mo-
ment that the reiRs are jerked and the
whip applied, while pedestrians soud
to the sidewalk in terror. However
liz BILE woman is to run over a COW, or
d street car, she will always stop or turn
out for a baby. This is one of the in
stincts of her maternal heart to which
even "get up! gl-a-n-g" is sacri-
| feed.
PLANTATION PROVERBS. - One-eyed
mule can't be handled on de bline side.
Moon may shine. buta lightered knots
mighty handy. De pig dat runs off
wild de year er corn gets little mo- dan
de cob. Lickor talks mighty loud
when it gifts loose frum de jug. Sleep
in in de fence corner don't fetch Kris
mus in de kitchen. Tween dc bug
and de bee martin taint hard to tell