Mexico weekly ledger., 1880-06-24
CAN WOMEN DRIvEe
An Old sLtverynan's Experience of thsss

An Old <Ltvsryman's Experience of thssi
=" Isn't il rather singular that
women never learn how to drive a
horse properly @' remarks some irste
man as he inspects tired animal,
aud finds the bride over its ears, and
the bit 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.
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 a horse mach better than
their husbands can.''au !4 aJat -.
Can women, drives and do you
let them handle your best horses ?''
were the questions put to good
natured livery keeper by an Interested
party. s# rTsls0 EtEg h t3tss a.
Drive answered the letter-out
of equines, 81 should think they
could; but, as for. letting out 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' nse-the
kind that will go anywhere if you
just guide them old family naes,
sensible enough to trot along and
mind their own business, and not
fret if they are pnlled two ways at
once .-,s.-.sa .-...-,..5-.,... ..
''Do you object to letting horses
out for women to drive?''
"No, indeed we have from twelve
to fifteen ladies' a week come to us
tor horses, 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
animals. Now, look at that sorren :"
pointing to one from whom the har-
ness had just been removed. 81 let
that horse this morning to a bit of q
woman with wrists no bigger than my
two fingers 1 didn't want to let it
go because it's such an ugly puller.
L told her it had a 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 10 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 corner whlsked
round it on one wheel. The rig came
in all right, but that horse won't get
it's breath for week. .<- 80
"Do they often meet with accidents
and have a smashnp?'' r q. -z s.4 s.G
''NO. 1t is curious, but q woman
will take team through q dozen
hairhreadth escapes and bring il back
all right. We have any amount oi
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 tc
lose their heads in a crowd or coils.
ion, but there is most always some
special providence at hand to helI
them. If you notice, the most dis.
astrous runaways happen when some
man has the reins. rl e--.. cF
Further talk developed the fac,
that women were not considerate il
their management of horses. The,
forget TO blanket them in winter anl
to tie them in the shade in summer
They sometimes use the lines a.
hitching straps, and have a settle,
dislike to learning proper names 70
harness. Not one in hundred coult
: tell the difference between the surcin
gle and the martingale, or had tn
: slightest idea to which end of tn
r. animal the crupper belonged, and
compelled to divest a horse Of it
trappings would undo every buckI
, in the service and take the collar o
t over the animals head, to all wlfie
e the intelligent beast would submit, a
if charmed, by being steadily talkc
. | to during the process in the witchin
/, tones of woman's voice. "f@ 20
p All of this may be libel on tn
;. sex, but it is certainly trueathat whe
an old family horse, with a ten-ninut
a gait, comes seesawing down til
Y street, with comiealy reckless a
d of running away, a woman's hea
n looks out from under the buggy tor
If a woman's hand guides the steed
e its eccentric orbit, and q woman
Il voice shouts indistinct tones, ..Wh-,
o-a-a,' at the same moment that Il
: reins are jerked and the whip apple.
d while pedestrians scud to the sid
l. walk in terror. However Liable
: woman is to run over a COW, or
4 strcet-car, she will salways stop 4
u turn out or stop for baby. This
one of the instincts of her matern
heart, to which even"get up gi-a-ng
> is Sacrificed .azs<ssEzs si7as#s $50 2
n 6a-