150 BRITON VS. SOUTHRON 



cowboy, to make this assumption safe. Yery few English 

 cavahy officers could ride across our plains as our own 

 have learned by rough experience to do. And the color 

 which fox-hunting lends to road -riding seriously limits 

 the average Briton's skill in the park. Still the best rider 

 of England is well worthy of imitation. The trouble 

 with our 3"oung men, whose few months in the saddle 

 makes them feel as if they had nothing more to learn, is 

 that they imitate the English groom — and the poor one 

 at that — and not the English gentleman. As well study 

 art from prize - package chromos! Some of the tricks 

 which one sees taken up from time to time have their 

 origin among the poorest horsemen. The elbows akimbo 

 or the swinging legs illustrate my meaning. Of course 

 Swelldom must have a new shibboleth every now and 

 then. Hands must be shaken just so, or liats must be 

 taken off or kept on by some mystic rule, or some un- 

 meaning lingo must be used at meeting or parting. This 

 is all well enough as a pastime, or as a cachet of the 

 order, as a password ; but when tricks in the saddle are 

 adopted from some questionable source, they may in 

 truth indicate that a man belongs to a certain clique, but 

 they do not demonstrate that he knows how to ride. 

 And this last happens to be the point of view we are tak- 

 ing. Such things are as harmless as they are ephemeral, 

 but it must be expected that they will evoke the smile 

 rather than the admiration of those who know. 



To recur to our British- Southron controversy, and put- 

 ting aside the peculiar uses of tlie English seat, let us sup- 

 pose an Englishman and a Southerner passing under the 

 eye of an unprejudiced Arab, a man riding in the style of 

 neither and yet a born horseman. The former trots by on 

 his rangy thorough-bred, with stirrups short, leaning over 

 his horse's withers, both hands busy willi his reins, but 



