514 WASHING CARRIAGES. 



ing a hill the pole is the sole means of determining the 

 direction or impetus of a pair-horse vehicle. When a joint 

 or any of the metal work becomes loose, it is an economy 

 to have the necessary repairs made without delay. One 

 defect causes another, and consequently the neglect of 

 the original trouble unnecessarily increases the coach build- 

 ers' account. On the other hand, the servant should not 

 be allowed to convert the carriages into a source of rev- 

 enue by sending vehicles constantly to the repair shop. A 

 coach builder by the name of Felton has made the following 

 remarks on the subject : 



" It is by the coachman that gentlemen are usually biassed in what is 

 to be done in the repairs or alterations of the carriage ; and who, from in- 

 terested motives or capricious whims, often go to extravagant lengths 

 abusing the implicit confidence their masters place in them, not only to the 

 sacrifice of their property, but to the injury of the carriage, which often 

 becomes a kind of property to the coachman or coach maker, and the pro- 

 prietor a dupe to one or both of their artifices. Coach makers are too fre- 

 quently made subservient to the coachman, owing to the influence they 

 have with their employers, and are therefore obliged to countenance the im- 

 propriety of their orders if they wish to preserve their customer." 



WASHING. 



If a carriage is not properly cleaned and is allowed to 

 remain dirty and wet, the wood rots and warps, the paint 

 peels off, and the lining becomes mouldy, the result is that 

 more frequent trips to the carriage builders are necessary, 

 and from the fact that the steel and iron work is weakened 

 by rust the carriage soon becomes more of a death trap than 

 a pleasure conveyance. The owner, by retaining only care- 

 ful men and by frequent inspections of the work, can retard 

 the ravages of destruction which otherwise move on with 



