FAST TROTTERS. 39 



startling rejoinder. The wheeled detention in the 

 thronged thoroughfare then became freed once more, the 

 Boh-hoy and his dray moved on, and the young historian 

 had to skip for his life, in order to avoid being crushed 

 by vehicles of every description. The drivers of every 

 omnibus, dray, cart, buggy, hackney carriage, or gentle 

 man's carriage, sit on their driving-seats, or stand on 

 their drays, with their legs " straddled" as widely as 

 possible, and their arms similarly spread, a rein grasped 

 firmly in each fist, and the mouths of their horses the chief 

 fulcrum by which the load behind them was propelled. 



At New York, in driving out after dinner, we went to 

 look at the public park that is being made, and in doing 

 so we drove some little way on one of the most dusty 

 roads I ever saw, greatly frequented at that time of the 

 afternoon by gentlemen amusing themselves in those 

 vulgar-looking gigs that are made very light, and with 

 high wheels, to be pulled along by their fast-trotting 

 horses. I scarcely know which of the two things to 

 dislike or which to laugh at the most, the shape of their 

 vulgar-looking vehicles, or (to an Englishman) the ugly 

 and ungraceful position of the drivers, who sit the very 

 reverse of our English position, all abroad like a spread 

 eagle, with legs and arms as wide apart as possible, and 

 a rein clutched in each fist, hanging on to the bit in the 

 distorted jaws of the mouthless horse, and making the 

 reins and the horse's head do the duty of tug, trace, and 

 collar. In short, the harness is only needed to hold up the 

 shafts, and to keep the animal from escaping, all stress be 

 ing on the rein, and from the arms of the irresponsible 

 driver, who holds on like grim Death for his own peculiar 

 pleasure and the probable destruction of mankind, and 

 can only stop by letting go the reins. 



