Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-06-29
TOURING BY CARNAGE.
Suggestions of q Most Pleasant Way
to Pass . Summer Vacation.
From the Boston Transcript


to Pass o Summer Vacation.
From the Boston Transcript.
Adaptability to both sexes. freedom,
health. facility for thoroughly and leisurely
enjoying scenery, time for exploring and
gathering interesting information concern
ing historic localities, opportunity for
studying native humankind on its native
soil-all at moderate expense. These are
possibilities that the rightly managed car
riage tour offers.
Within the past two years there has been
a manifestly increasing interest among Gull
t:vated people in this most attractive mode
of spending summer vacation. To those
who may be interested, especially those al
ready, preparing for horse and carriage
journeyings, suggestions are offered upon
the details that, disregarded. may bring
the tour to a speedy and harassing end.
1 shall assume that the majority of those
who might be disposed to engage in the I'M
dertaking will do 50 actuated by something
Of the spirit that characterized my mother,
Mrs. Abbie Scates Ames, and myself, Wheh
we set out upon our drive of 1.40O miles.
We had made UP our minds that the plan
was well worth undertaking as means OF
recreation, sightseeing and gaining new ana
refreshing Information concerning the re-
public in which we lived. We started with
the Sober intention of putting our horse
aboard the cars whenever We should wish
10 give up the Journey. we SOl vi liic
road, and suffice 1t to say We kept driving
ahead until in nine weeks from the start in
Illinois in July, our faithful mare. Kit.
had carried us across Illinois, parts OF
southern Michigan and northern Indiana,
Ohio. New York. Vermont and New Hamp-
shire. to Boston, without her having been
sick day. The entire cost of the expedi-
ton was $3.50.
is the horse. The horse for touring must
be endowed with certain indispensable
qualities. ToughnesS is the prime requisite.
Beauty, symmetry and speed are of sec
orGary Importance. You want a horse that
can take a steady, even measure of work
without fretting or fussing, and grimiy
maintain that allotted measure day after
day; for right here 1t may we'll be stated
that you will not average more than TWEEN
ty-five to thirty miles a day. The horse
cannot stand more than that, and you will
find that you cannot. The acquaintances
who may glfbly tell you of drives of sew
enty to eighty miles in one day have not
done much long-distance touring, depend
upon it.
1t should be recalled that, day in and day
cut for some weeks, the animal will be
pulling, up hill and down. over scOrchinS
sands and waxy bogs. some four to six
hundred pounds of wagon, three hundred 20
three hundred and fifty pounds of humane
ty. and from fifty to one hunered pounds
of baggage. The horse. to endure satisfac-
torily long, hard tour. will require just as
much attention, just as much kindly care
man being that were drawing the convey
ance. For your own satisfaction and COM
fort you will find that it is preferable to
follow the plan of driving from, say,
O'Clock in the morning to 1890. Then you
Will want to halt under the branches of
seine shady tree or hedge; and while the
horse is stripped of the harness and crops
the grass, later is watered and has his
priced allotment of oats three and half
quarts are enough. you can loll and loaf.
You have your luncheon. Perhaps you
are where there is a fine stretch of scenery
to enlist your enthusiasm, or, mayhap.
you'll dream over novel. AT about 3
o clock you will be on the way again. By
q or you will begin to feel like having IA
good supper and stopping for the night.
Twenty-Five or thirty miles of the incessant
jar of the carriage will have been all you
care to undergo. This is the real picture of
what may be called the routine of the tour.
Unless the horse and yourself. are thor
oughiy used to drivins-that is. you are
acc ustomed to good stiff rides. that sit
ting in the carriage does not easily tire
YOU and the horse is thoroughly hardened
1T is wise not to plan on going more than
fifteen miles or so each day during the first
week. You will have to work into the tour
gradually.
As stopping places, you will find in gen
eral that the farm houses afford the better
satisfaction. 1t will not do to drive along
until nearly dusk and trust sublimely To
finding accommodations at the first houses
at which you apply If you have put off
have patiently to poke along mourning at
number of farms before you finally secure
lodgings. Even then you may have to get
quarters for your horse at neighboring
house quarter mile distant from the es-
Establishment where you sleep
You may come into a village and. to your
establishment. find that there is no regular
hotel tavern in the place, and YOU will
have interesting bit of inquiring and
hunting around before you are ensconsed
for the evening. At farm houses you are
most likely to obtain good, clean beds ard
wholesome food. If you start in a couple
of hours before dark to find lodgings trial
al six. seven or eight farm dwellings is rea-
scnably certain to bring accommodations
at some one of the number
1t Will be found if the tourist is adroft
enough to take advantage of the fact, that
a dollar-a-Gay rate prevails at the country
taverns and boarding houses-that is, TWEEN
ty-ve cents each for meals and the same
for lodging. The expense for the horse will
be about the same as that for yourself
namely, twenty-five cents feed and the
same for stabiing. Occasionally you will
have to pay at the rate of fifty cents a
meal for either yourself or the horse.
If you have mercy for the dumb beast,
get look at the stalls Try to get the use
of box stall if you can. If not, be sure
that the open stall is wide enough for your
horse to lie down. for some livery stalls
are actually not wide enough for a horse
to lie down in, and were Intentionally built
so. Find out if they have old oats for the
feed, since if you get new oats into your
horse he will probably terminate his exist
cree in this very stable. Ascertain as to
the hay. IN some stables they keep a sup
ply of old. musty rubbish, fit for nothing
else than bedding; yet it is that which ii is
expected the stable hands will furnish
transient teams. the idea being that as the
drivers are travelling they will never be
back to make any trouble over the outrage
Take care that your horse has a fair sup
ply of hay, and watch for yourself as to
whether he eats his cats There are stables
be ii known, where they will put the meas
ure of hay, oats or corn in the crib. and
after your back is turned the provender Is
removed. 1t is fact.
Among the curious experiences. some
times comical and many times eNasperat-
ing, that the carriage tourist is bound TO
encounter are those with reference to get
ting directions When one works out
into the real country ways and he is com
PEELED to interrogate the passerby with
How far is il to So-snd-So?" or can you
tell me the directions to Blankville?" he
begins his study of individuality in go-as-
you-pease engineering An old fellow in
Ohio said to me one afternoon:
Less see-now-I amt been ter Their
county seat fer nigh two years. My boys
been. but then he amt here. Well-ye keep
right on this road till We git where theys
three roads come together. an We take the
anglin road ter Their right an keen that