The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-04-26

the bit. The great objection urged TO
leather bits is, that if horse wearing
one should run away, the driver would
have but little chance of stopping him.
Did any one ever stop real runaway
after he had once got start, even with
the severest bit? / don't believe that
any one ever did. Any one who says
that he can hold any horse by simply
pulling at the reins has a good deal to
learn yet" -
If the above-quoted counsel to young
horse-trainers and drivers is not well
worth their attention, we are much
misled in the matter. A properly
trained and easy-driving horse is at any
time worth more than double one of an
opposite character, even if otherwise of
no less native goodness.
SOME time ago we had some earnest
words in this department regarding
to the abuse by railroad people of but
ter packages, fruit crates and the bags
in which farm products are sent to
market. Incidentally, we at the same
time spoke of the willful and rascally
abuse of passengers baggage. 1t is
not very often that the city press will
tell the truth about these outrages; but
the Springfield Republican does itself
honor in saying, as it did in recent
issue: cit has been left for the rail,
road commission of the state of North
Carolina to take the first step toward
reform in which every man, woman
and child in this country has a direct
and personal interest. That body real
ICES that it is high time that railroad
employees were compelled to respect
the rights of personal property as they
appear in the baggage of the travelling
public, and so this order has been
issued All common carriers subject
to the supervision of the railway COM
mission shall provide such means or
appliances as may be necessary to Sc
cure the careful handling of and to
prevent injury to any parcel of baggage
to which check may be affixed. And
at all minor stations where no proper
appliances are supplied, and no regular
depot hand is employed, it shall be re-
quired of the train-hands to assist the
baggage-master and lift with care all
baggage from the car DOORS We do
not know how much power resides in
the railroad commission of North Caro-
lima, but such as it possesses was never
better directed than in this order. 1t
is simply marvel that the American
people have gone on all these long
years since railroads were introduced
without insisting that ordinary care be
given to the handling of the baggage.
That ordinary care is not given, that
indeed baggagemasters and train
hands take savage delight in banging
trunks and bags, and are AS independ.
ent in doing it as it is possible for
lawless nature to be-everybody who
has seen railroad will have to agree.
Railroad managers, in seeking for nice
points of administration and in rein.
ing the system of management, have
gravest abuse. This is an astonishing
point in itself 1t is only to be &C.
counted for on the theory that famil-
iarity with the abuse has blunted the
sense of how real and outrageous it is.
We are apt to rail at the railroad meth
DDS that obtain in older countries, and
to point with pride to the superiority
of American ideas in railroading, but
nowhere in the world save the United
States of America is the baggage
smasher known, much less tolerated.
| He is as rude and lawless factor in
civilized life as the frontier ruffian, and
yet he is permitted to exist and to work
his will in the very heart of our boosted
civilization. 1t is frequent saying
that corporations have no souls, but it
is certainly true that some employees of
railroads are without that sense of re-
sponsibility to the travelling public that
the people have got to insist upon.
The handlers of baggage are very far
removed from remote central author
ity, but this is no reason why they
ought not to be brought to book where
the property of patrons of the railroad
is involved and abused"
If we must wait for railroad mana
gers to put stop to this piratical con-
duct, judging by the past, we shall have
to wait forever. No man can believe
that any one connected with railroad,
even the smallest, is not fully aware Of
the constant occurrence of such wilful
destruction of passengers property.
The only kind of baggage that receives
any respect, outside of that of their fell