The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-11-06
TO s1or nyyawAY nonsns.

- A Field That is We'll Exploited by Ingen' ious Inventors - Innumerable DevIeel
 That Seem to iill the Biii, but Have
 Some Fatal Drawback When Put to . Practical Test.
 lFrom the New York Sun.l
 Next to going to bed, which Mark Twain demonstrated long ago was tn, most dangerous place in the world, be. cause more persons died in their beds than in all other places put together perhaps one assumes more risk of per. sonal injury by going out driving be hind horses than in any other way Riding in railroad cars has been proved to be safer than walking the streets and If any one doubts the safety and longevity of men in the army they need only consult the weary lieuten' ants in the service who are growing gray waiting for captains shoulder straps and pay.
 Not a day passes that the newspa. pers do not record the injury or death of some one as the result of a horse runaway accident. With this in mind Sun reporter recently visited lot Of the older men in the horse and harness business to see if there was not some device invented or in use which would stop runaway horse.
 Certainly" said one of these men there is one certain way to stop a runaway horse. and to protect yourself from any future danger-kill the horse If had a horse that was addicted to running away, and had to drive behind him, l would carry a good hammer with me, and as soon as he started would climb out on the shafts, gel along to his head, and make a hole ir his skull.
 "The fact is," he continued, "no man Is willing to own that he possesses a runaway horse. As long as he has tc keep him he will certainly not put any safety appliances upon the anima which would advertise the fact that he was dangerous, for he hopes soon tc sell or trade the animal away. A run. away horse is bound to be a runaway as long as he lives. for the habit is a fault of his breaking. Perhaps some ot the professional handlers, of vicious horses can rebreak these and cure them, as they claim to be able to do If they can, they may be able to save such horse from deserved death.
 Probably in no line of business has there been so many inventions. as in the matter of horse f1xings. Every man that ever drove a horse, 1t seems to me. has invented some new thing in the way of harness. Here in New York we will hardly look at these things, but in the west you could find lot of them in use How valuable they may be you can judge best by go. ing out and looking at the harnesses in use here. Not one harness in thou sand will have a single one of these new-fangled notions upon 1t, not.even a safety bit.
 Tt is not, however, the confirmed runaway horse that is the greatest danger. Nearly all the accidents one reads of are caused by some gentle and ordinarily tractable animal taking d sudden fright and smashing Wr things because thefe was mot fa clshl road for him to run in. Lots of ilist such runawayss take place in the dpi1n. try, without resulting in danger, be- cause there is room enough for the horse to have iis frightened run out before he gets in collision with some wagon or has to make a sharp turn5in a road" i:a ! or all the devices which have, been made and, shown, for stopping or ,eons trolling runaway horses, few are even remembered. Many. a horseman has never heard of any of them, excepting bits. Of these there are lots in the market and every one of them has some points of merit These, however, depend for their efficiency upon produ- cling pain sufficient to bring horse to his senses and force him to a stop vol untarily. If the horse were wild with fright or suffering from the mad stag gers, none of these would be of the least use. Just one device was found upon sale that Is intended to bring a horse to a stop, whether he is willing or not. This does not look unlike the ordinary bridle with "a nose. strap. If one examines 1t 8 little closer, he will see, however, that the nose strap Is a trif1e broader than is common and that it stands out clear of the nose. Under this strap is the arrangement for stop ping the horse. Here, arranged on either side, are two soft pads, one just over each nostril of the horse. The nose band is connected directly to the. dri- wing rings of the bit and is held away from the horses nose by spiral springs. Should the driver pull up hard and sud- denly upon the. reins, these springs would be collapsed and the pads would close the horses nostrils. A horse is not like most other animals. He can breathe only through his nostrils and not through his mouth.
 1T don't know whether to call this a safety device or not" said the dealer. "There is one thing, however, which Is certain. It will bring the horse to "a dead stop whenever 1t is applied. The last man that heard of who used one of them got of luckily with only one arm and two ribs broken"
 Major Lorrigan, of the Ninth regi- ment, tried g bridle similar to this one some years ago down on Lond Island. He had real runaway, and h traveling . p,ent sold him the bridle with a guar antee that 1t would stop the horse.