St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-25
Adirondacks and Bar Harbor. 1t was

an accommodating vehicle, and would
carry any reasonable number of people
By taking off the dry goods box and put
ting the passengers on the plank, eight
or ten could be carried, with room for
trunk or two on behind. The buck
board and the bob-sled are on much the
same principle, and belong to the same
order of enjoyment. But as the I'M
planned bob-sled, that country boy could
put together himself, developed into
the gorgeous vanished and cushioned
500 nickel-plated sled, SO the original
blackboard developed until now 1t costs
as much as S400 or $500. Instead of sit
tin g on dry goods box, or on plank,
the passengers have upholstered seats
with cushioned backs, and some build
ers have gone so far as to get out curved
and cushioned seats. BuckbOards for
eight or ten, instead of being luxurious
when the plankS are planed, now have
rows of cushioned seats like those in
railroad car, and. worse than all, they
have springs. This degeneration has
painted yellow is called blackboard.
and that it is even permissible to have
blackboard with red wheels. All the
large builders have gone into the buck
board business. Where they used to
have orders for Surveys and other kinds
of country traps they now have orders
for gorgeous buckboards. The original
Adirondack and Bar Harbor blackboard
is no longer seen around the resorts
near New York. The blackboard has
now more styles than any other kind of
trap, and is as costly. The wood is
usually stained or vanished, but is
oftener brown or yellow than the dark
olive green of the victoria, Oh mail
phaeton, but the inroads of civilization
have destroyed the charms of this prim-
tive conveyance. The same fate has
come to the harness. The original buck
board did not require any particular
kind of harness; anything would do.
An ordinary collar for the horse, with
ropes for traces and bits of leather and
rope to keep the horse in the shafts,
with any kind of patched .reins, were in
harmony with the plank and the old soap
box. Such thing as Russia leather
harness was not dreamed of. An eX-
penditure of SIS would have been eX-
blackboard came cOStlier harness and
costlier horses. Much of the original
harness was yellow, not the yellow of
the present heightened harness, but the
natural yellow of the untanned harness.
The village shoemaker could make good
enough harness for the original buck
board. He could cut the traces, reinS
and straps out of bit of leather, and
sew them together in way that would
hold and stand any kind of usage.
Their color is one of the relics that sur
wives, like the color of the original buck
board. No one ever thought of paint
ing the vehicle in the first place; its
color was the natural color of the wood,
III O VIZ
natural color of the leather. These two
have been preserved. But when the
blackboard become popular the harness
makers set out to make new kind OF
harness. They took leather and put it
through various processes until it
would get rich red-yellow. That made
regular sets of harness that cost as much
as the harness of q valuable trotter Or
for coach pair. They worked silver
and brass into it, even gold plate. with
monograms and tasSels and rOsettes and
other fancy things. Russia leather was
used. because its color was rich. 1t was
something new and costly. The orig
inal untanned leather gave way. With
all this came the horse with the locked
tail. Country horses never have locked
tails. They were born with tails, and
all their lives they use them to keep off
flies. This was the kind of horse that
pulled the plank with the old axles and
wheels and the soap box on top by
means of a continuance of leather and
ropes. But when the blackboard and
the harness improved another style of
horse came in-the horse with the
locked tail. The blackboard is now
recognized fashionable conveyance,
which can cost any amount of money
So can the harness. Instead of putting.
an extra soap box on the plank when
more seats are wanted, folding seats
have been made which slide in and out,
and which can be turned over so that
smooth-faced youth with yellow tops
to his boots and his trousers tucked in
side Of them may sit on it and look back
into vacancy with folded arms. The
blackboard has yielded to the demands
of fashion