316 



BAD TRAITS AND EDUCATION. 



BAD TRAITS. 



Certain objectionable characteristics are found among all 

 classes of stable servants. Drunkenness, brutality, moral 

 obliquity in its various forms, profanity, laziness, sullenness, 

 and bad manners are those most frequently met with, and it 

 requires much care and some experience to detect their pres- 

 ence before they are actually introduced into your establish- 

 ment. 



THE EDUCATION OF A COACHMAN. 



Some idea of the difference between a 

 past master of the art and the average 

 ploughboy coachman may be drawn from 

 a description of what a coachman in the 

 highest sense of the word should be, and 

 what the few men worthy of the name 

 actually are. 



The embryo coachman in the raw 

 material of a lad about to learn the rudi- 

 ments of stable work must be of the 

 proper physique and appearance, amen- 

 able to reason, and endowed with an even 

 temperament and a brain capable of de- 

 velopment. Without such qualifications in a crude shape to 

 start with, it is useless for a man to aspire to the dignity of 

 a coachman ; he may by perserverance and good character 

 become an excellent second-rate man, but never one to reach 

 the hifjhest runo^ of the ladder. 



The coachman's first period of apprenticeship begins 

 immediately upon leaving school, although in all likelihood 

 if he is " born to his callingr " his earlv childhood and sum- 



