104 



THE BRIDLE BITS. 



men in one, tlie driver and the driven, sitting side by 

 side, the driven is obliged to hold on to the rail behind 

 the driver with his inside hand to keep from falling out, 

 while the tails of his coat, for which there is no room on 

 the seat, float in the passing air like an ^'old clo'" sign 

 in a second-hand Jew shop. 



No wonder that rotund widows have ceased to enjoy 

 themselves in buggy airings, an exercise that gave their 

 mothers such pleasure in good old times of spacious 

 rooms and ample buggy seats, which had more room for 

 three than the parvenu papier maclie packing boxes of 

 the present day have for two. The bar bit was used for 





Fig. 42.— PACKING BOX BUGGY. 



a three-fold purpose — that of holding the horse, steady- 

 ing him in the trot, and pulling the bnggy. The prac- 

 tice has been handed down in a direct line from other 

 generations (patrons of the old Spirit of the Times of 

 Porter and Richards' days') to the present time, and 

 is followed up under the influence of a greater variety of 

 bits with more or less success in individual cases. The 

 idea was that a horse was less apt to throw np his head 

 and break under the whip, while the steady draft was on 

 his under-jaw, if he was purposely trained to it. 



The loo])s on the reins to hold on by served as substi- 

 tutes for traces, and the practice of setting the feet 



