Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-05-22
THE JEHUS OF NOR
They are Great Masters of the Whip,
Which is Their Pride An Affecting In


cident.
The first thing that arrests a stranger S
attention in Norman street, says an
English traveller writing in Chambers
Journal, is the peculiarly common to
drivers of all vehicles. On the morning
of our arrival we were awakened at 10
o'clock by what sounded like fierce duel
with revolvers just outside the hotel door
IAN adventure already!' we exclaimed,
and sprang out of bed and rushed to the
window, picturing a sanguinary conflict
between bloodthirsty Frenchmen on the
pavement. The reality was disappoint-
ting: A traveller had arrived in a cab,
and the driver was cracking his whip in
what we have since discovered to be the
otherodox fashion, to call the attention of
the hotel concierge. The proficiency and
perseverance displayed by cabmen and
carriers in whip-cracking are remarkable;
they have made fine art of this innocent
pastime. At one time imagined that the
instruments which emitted such pistol
shots must be masterpiece of its kind,
and made an early opportunity of examin-
ing one. We found that the Norman jehu
constructed his plaything out of an Old
billiard cue, five feet of frayed clothes-lines,
and piece of string; whereat we marvel
led greatly, and became lost in admiration
of the skill evinced in its manipulation.
We have called the Norman whip play
thing, so it is, when horse falls down, or
commits any other equine misdemeanor,
his owner does not beat him,
as they would spoil the whip. No;
he lavishes upon his erring slave torrent
of opprobrious epithets. and sits down to
wait till the animal feels inclined to get
up, or until sergent de vile hints that
it would be advisable to remove the OBJ
struction to traffic. Then he puts the
whip carefully aside, uses more drastic
language, and kicks the horse. Such Sc
we're measures are not often resorted to-
however, for your Norman carter is
kind-hearted man; and if his horse hap
pens to lie down In an unfrequented road,
he permits him to remain IN a PROSTATE
position till the animal wants to go home
himself. This, however, by the way.
1t is when the team, numbering from
one to FIVE, is in full career, jangling its
bells and shaking proudly the blue door
mats that adorn its harness, that the whip
comes into liveliest play. Then the carter
is in his element; he ties red and blue rags
to the handle, making it thing of I'M
revealed beauty, and rides along fulminat-
ing cracks that FILL his simple soul with a
deep, ineffable JOY. A very scepter is this
whip to the man who wields it, and with
it he is disconsolate indeed. Disconsolate!
He is no longer a voiturier; he has lost
his caste. We have seen men in various
deoths of dispair from time to time-men
whose lives had just been blighted forever
by her final 'No'-and men chasing their
best hats along Princess street Through a ]
sea of mud. But we never fully grasped
the magnitude of possible human misery
until last Wednesday. We were taking |
walk on the Bon Secours road, and about |
five miles from Rouen came upon a burly |
individual in a blouse. sitting under the
hedge in an attitude that betokened the
profoundest woe. Drawn up near him on
the roadside was a cumbrous country vain
with three horses, the latter standing
patiently in the sun fighting the persistent
flies. We do not know much French; but