THE BAR BIT. 107 



muscular strength ; and in the event of a defeat on our 

 part, run foul of another team, or be dashed against a 

 lamp-post and left dead or seated among the splinters of 

 a wrecked vehicle with broken bones. These are all pos- 

 sibilities, and such catastrophies are not infrequent. 

 They can be traced to one or two causes : The driver, 

 being a stranger, tlie horse takes fright, and not knoAv- 

 ing the voice, or the driver not knowing what to say that 

 the horse understands to be controlled, takes flight ; or, 

 second, the mouth being hard and the bit or the arm 

 powerless to hold him in before he gets under full head- 

 way, the horse becomes his own master. A few winters 

 ago an occurrence like this took place in Brooklyn. A 

 lady was in a carriage on her way to the Fulton Ferry. 

 On crossing Myrtle Avenue near the City Hall, the horses 

 took fright and ran down the hill to the East River and 

 plunged into the slip, where the horses, carriage and i^as- 

 senger went to the bottom, the ice closing over them, 



The heavy smell of some men is very objectionable to 

 some horses, and they kick at and run away with them 

 without any apparent cause. We should, therefore, have 

 reins and bit fit and ready for any emergency, and not 

 expose lives to the risk of the common expression, '^ Oh, 

 there's no danger." But as that don't stop runaway 

 horses, repair the broken vehicle, nor restore life or limb, 

 we recommend timely preventives. There's always dan- 

 ger on wheels, either in meeting or following others, and 

 although the best driver cannot always foresee the danger 

 from other horses running away, he can always prevent 

 accidents or control his own in a dash or attempt at a 

 runaway. 



A gentleman who has been an owner of horses all his 

 life was kind enough to sliow us his favorite buggy horse, 

 of which he was very proud, for in temper, disposition 

 and style he was all that a man could expect in one horse, 

 and the only faults we had to find with him (in our mind) 



