CHAPTER XII. 



STABLE SERVANTS. 



CHARACTER, EDUCATION, TYPES, WAGES, MEANS OF 



OBTAINING, ETC. 



Coachmen and grooms do not 

 form a class from which angels are 

 exclusively chosen, and there is no 

 harder task in the establishment of 

 a stable, nor one which is so seldom 

 productive of success, as the en- 

 deavor to find a competent and 

 reliable coachman or groom. So 

 much depends upon the good luck 

 of the first venture that the author 

 enjoins the novice to avoid a hasty 

 X" V decision. The temptation to take 

 ^,'|V an applicant of mediocre accom- 

 plishments increases with each suc- 

 ceeding interview with an absolutely 

 worthless servant or by the alluring 

 assurance of a self-appointed paragon of perfection, that his 

 services are being sought by several prominent owners. 



Good men are not to be found at all times, " which goes 

 without saying," the reader may remark, yet he or she, if 

 requiring the services of a coachman, is surprised or dis- 

 couraged in not being able to find a good one at once, or 

 goes to the other extreme of placing implicit confidence in 



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