82 THE CHOICE OF A CARRIAGE. 



two carriages, comes to the question of price : one is a quarter 

 or a half more than the other. To the inexperienced critic 

 there is nothing in the outward appearances to warrant this 

 difference in value, and he takes it for granted that the 

 essential parts, the wheels, under-carriage and body, of the 

 two carriages are of equally good material and workmanship. 

 Believing what he hopes to be so is so, he attributes the 

 difference in price as due to more expensive upholstery or 

 some equally unimportant detail. The result is, with what 

 would be praiseworthy economy were he right in his conjec- 

 ture, he chooses the cheaper and inferior vehicle. Constant 

 bills for repairs soon prove the fallacy of his opinion. 



As the superiority of one carriage over another is often 

 due to the excellence of the material that is hidden by paint, 

 the buyer draws his conclusions regarding the quality of 

 such material from the reputation the dealer's work bears. 

 The names of certain well-known manufacturers on vehicles 

 is considered almost as much of a guarantee of their intrinsic 

 worth as is the government stamp on a sovereign. It is not 

 the author's intention to advocate only elaborately made and 

 consequently high-priced vehicles, but that, whatever the 

 carriage may be, and the simpler the better, if the purse has 

 to be considered, the material and workmanship should be 

 of the best. The difference of two or three hundred dollars 

 in the price of two broughams or victorias of apparently the 

 same construction is more than doubly repaid during the 

 life of the superior carriage, in consequence of its greater 

 durability. 



When a novice is about to make his selection of a horse 

 and carriage he should bear in mind that it is the carriage 

 which is the primal factor in determining to what extent the 



