THE EDUCATION OF A COACHMAN. 317 



mer vacations will be spent in helping his father or a brother 

 in the stable work. By such means he becomes more famil- 

 iar with " the ropes " before he has mastered his "speller" 

 than is the average self-styled full-fledged coachman. His 

 serious regular work begins with the drudgery of building 

 and lighting fires at daybreak, beating the blankets, cleaning 

 up the stalls and putting things to rights ; he is taught to 

 do his work quickly and thoroughly, to carry himself prop- 

 erly and to be respectful in manner and speech. 



After two or three years of such service he is taught to 

 bed down the stalls and is allowed, in addition to this unin- 

 teresting work, the privilege of taking the horses to the 

 blacksmith or to exercise. During the latter part of the 

 three or four years devoted to these duties he is put on " the 

 steels " and rough leather, i. e., the scouring and burnishing 

 of bits, etc., and the washing and cleaning of old harness. 

 He is next advanced to the feeding, blanketing, bandaging, 

 and grooming of the horses. It is usually toward the end 

 of this period that he begins the washing of carriages and 

 makes his initial appearance in livery as .carriage groom. 



From this time on the rapidity of his advancement is 

 dependent upon his dexterity, degree of observation and 

 aptitude. He has now to learn how to clean fine harness, 

 livery and robes, trim manes and tails, to properly " put to " 

 from one to four horses, to drive any of that number in a 

 workmanlike manner and to act as under-coachman. After 

 four years thus spent under the discipline of a master of the 

 art he seeks a position where he can think for himself, i. e., 

 use the knowledge he has acquired which is shown in the 

 judgment he uses regarding the amount and kind of food 

 necessary to keep the horses in the pink of condition, the 



