XXVI 



To return to the States, and to follow out the text on 

 which Ave have been so far preaching. It will be accepted 

 as a truism that the man or people that does any given 

 thing the most constantly will be apt to excel in that one 

 thing. Let us apply this to the riding of the Southerner 

 and our own riding in the East. Now the climate and 

 soil, the thicker population, the more industrious habits 

 of the Eastern and Middle States produced excellent roads 

 at a much earlier period than in the South. In fact, there 

 are few places in the South to-day where the highways 

 can be called even tolerable. The soil is intractable for 

 roads. Good roads are wont to be followed by wheeled 

 transportation, poor roads force people to cling to the sad- 

 dle. When the Northern farmer goes to the nearest town 

 he drives, because the roads are good, and he can carry 

 his stuff to better advantage; the Southerner rides, be- 

 cause the roads for a great part of the year are impassa- 

 ble to wheels. This breeds the universal habit of horse- 

 back-work. The same thing applies to women. To visit 

 their neighbors, go to church or shopping in the nearest 

 village, the women must make use of the saddle. This 

 necessity of the country, where the roads are bad, becomes 

 habit of the city, where the roads are better. The South- 

 erner has been in the saddle constantly for many genera- 

 tions, and to-day boys and girls alike ride the colts in 

 pasture with, like the Numidian of old, only a stick to 

 guide them. In the North these conditions and habits 



