TYPES OF STABLE SERVANTS. 323 



The lowest order is made up of " green hands " (men 

 who have little or no experience w r ith horses); "jack of all 

 trades, masters of none," and men other than coachmen who 

 are out of work and seek any kind of employment. Men of 

 this stamp will undertake to care for from one to four horses, 

 carry wood and coal, wash windows and mow the grass or 

 shovel snow. Unless a person has an old horse, harness and 

 carriage concerning the care of which he is indifferent and 

 chiefly requires some one on the place to do chores, this 

 type of stable servant is a petty luxury. Receiving but 

 small wages, they care little about thoroughness in the per- 

 formance of the work, " so long as they keep out of trouble 

 with the boss." With such men in charge a horse, unless 

 accustomed to rough treatment or of iron constitution, con- 

 tracts cold, gets off his feed, becomes lame and at last breaks 

 down, and the carriage and harness likewise find their way 

 to destruction. 



Blame is liberally bestowed upon the man-of-all-work, 

 whereas he is simply the innocent victim of the owner's mis- 

 judgment or ill-advised economy, and for one reason or an- 

 other, but generally without any reason whatsoever, the 

 master has employed a class of man to perform work which 

 demands the intelligence of a brain commanding half again 

 or double the sum he is paying. The wages of men of this 

 stamp vary from thirty to forty dollars per month. They 

 " find themselves," which is the stable vernacular signifying 

 that they provide themselves with food and sometimes lodg- 

 ing. 



The second of the four divisions into which it has been 

 found consistent to divide stable servants is composed of poor 

 under-men from private stables, enterprising hack drivers 



