Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-03-02
DRIVER AND DROSKY.

DRIVER AND DROSKY.
 VACCINATIONS OF RIDING IN ST. DE-
 TERsBURG's FAvORITE VEHICLE
 Whirling Round . Street Corner like
 Mad-The Ishvosktnik and His Hors..
 Sleeping Between Drives-Peculiar Hs..
 ness-The Right of Way.
 The drosky is an institution that ought to be introduced into the states There is one in Washington, owned and used by MT. Alex Greger. the secretary of the Russian legation. and it is great curiosity; but they would be very useful and popular in all our cities. par ticularly if they could be drawn by Russian horses. There is as much fascination in rid ing in drosky as in gondola in Venice, and it is the first thing the traveller wants to do when he arrives in Petersburg. He will send his bags by the omnibus and go to the hotel in drosky. It is a low vehicle, the floor being scarcely more than foot from the ground, on four wheels not much larger miniature victoria. The ishvoshtnik, or dri- yer, sits on high perch far above the heads of the passengers, who have low, narrow, backless seat over the hind wheels. It is not uncomfortable, but the sensation at first is alarming, particularly when you are whiz- zing around corner, for the drivers always go like mad, and you wish there was some thing to hold on to. You fasten your hand on the seat with good grip, and cling to your fellow passenger, if you have one.
 The horse that draws you, and the driver who holds the rens are both Russian institu- tions, and you won't find their like elsewhere. One can find poor horses in Russia suppose, but very few in Petersburg or the other large cities. They are tall, long legged animals, with slender bodies and imbs long silken manes and tails, the latter nearly always reaching to the ground, small heads, small feet, large, intelligent eyes, and necks arched like the chargers one sees in pictures of the Bedouins in the desert. always thought that such horses were the creation of the art ists, but Russia is full of them The ish- voshtnik is always proud of his horse, if he has good one, and treats him much better than he does his wife. Nearly all the time he is disengaged the ishvoshtnik is either betting or rubbing his horse, and at inter vals he brings out little nose bag from under the seat, to feed him oats or meal.
 Not one in ten of these charioteers has a home, and not one in ten of these splendid horses knows the inside of stable. They live in the harness, in the open air summer and winter, being always on duty, eating when opportunity offers, and sleeping in their droskies between drives Every hour or two the driver takes nose bag full of oats from under his seat to feed his animals, and ill the streets of the cities convenient ar engagements have been made for the accom- If o1o 0f fIo lation. Water troughs are erected at inter- vals, small packages of hay, oats and meal are sold at the shops along the way side, and the ishvoshtnik gets his coffee and his meat at the same places, feeding, as he lives, with his horse Both horses and masters seem never to tire, both are always on the alert. The drivers are always cheerful and good natured, and the horses always ready to start off like awhirlwind as soon as they get the word. Neither seem to care for the cold or rain, and the one is about as much an animal as the other.
 The harness of the horse is as light as leather can be made, none of the straps be- ing more than half an inch in width, and most of them are round, not larger than a lead pencil. There is no breechen because there are no grades in Petersburg; thecoun- try is perfectly level. There are no binders on the bridle, for the horse fears nothing; he will walk up to a locomotive with as much indifference as his master He never shieS, never gets rattled, never runs away, but is perfectly obedient to the voice of his master There are no traces, as the vehicle is drawn by the thills, which are made fast to the heavy collar with a high hoop over the horses neck. The collar is part of the drosky, not of the harness, for when the horse is taken away from the vehicle the collar goes with the latter.
 The hoop over the horses ncck, which con- meets the ends of the thills and looks like an exaggerated, badly formed horseshoe, is called the "duga," and underneath the apex, on equipages in the country, is fastened big bell-sometimes two or three bells which jangle SO loudly that they may be heard half mile away. The purpose of the bell is to announce the coming of the horse man, to frighten away the wolves that infest the country roads, and to warn other travel CTS upon narrow and dangerous highways against collisions. The droskies in the cities were formerly decorated with bells, but they made such din that the government issued an edict to abolish them. Now, when the ve- hicle is approaching corner at high rate of speed, and it never goes slowly, the driver announces his coming by a shout-a peculiar, prolonged tone like the gondoliers use at Venice. In the winter bells are necessary, for their sledges are noiseless and the ordi- nary speed is great.
 did not see whip during my entire stay in Petersburg, but the ishvoshtnik keeps up a continual one sided conversation with his fleet footed partner, now encouraging him with tender, caressing epithets; now stinging him with sarcasm and taunts of scorn, and again hurling at the horse profane explosives. The effective of the drivers voice is peculiar and powerful and an observant rider will be interested in studying this odd relationship. Now the stallion, and only stallions are used, ''is precious to the sour' of the ishvoshtnik, or is his ''tender dove;'' a few moments later he is accused of being something entirely different, in terms that cannot be printed here, and the horse seems to understand every word
 When the reins are frightened the horse goes; when they are relaxed he stops. The drivers also use queer sound made by roll ing the tongue, sort of troll-llll-ll-ll-u which means business. When the horse hears that he straightens himself out and goes for all he is worth. They never go foc