'STABLES AS THET SHOULD BE. 323 



habited in tlie thinnest of evening dresses, leave their warm apartments 

 and subject their exposed beauties to the chilling effects which must 

 necessarily be present in vehicles so carelessly sheltered. Here, after 

 the bustle of preparation, they remain inactive for some period. They 

 are set down at a fashionable hotel, and return thence in the same con- 

 veyance. The next day they naturally complain of a cold, supposed to 

 have been caught at the party of last night ! 



People when seated within a carriage, the windows being up, may 

 esteem themselves protected from the night air ; but they would be safer 

 wal'King through frost or rain than traveling inactive within such a 

 receptacle. Consumption is far more prevalent among carriage folk 

 than it is common among races which are supposed to exist in spheres 

 liable to all the ills of life. Poverty has to encounter many perils, and 

 is obliged to endure many privations; but it is not exposed to those 

 snares which the ignorance of wealth has invented for its own destruc- 

 tion. 



Perhaps, in this country, of many classes, the richer are most troubled 

 with colds, with coughs, and with diseases of the air-passages. Good 

 living, no labor, and careful nursing may enable them, to linger on to a 

 good old age ; but comparatively few know the blessings of a vigorous 

 being after the fiftieth year has passed. Warm rooms, a study of the 

 weather, and ample envelopes prolong the life ; but such things cannot 

 restore the health. Gout, paralysis, epilepsy, with numerous brain dis- 

 orders, are not common in agricultural districts, where carriages are 

 scarce. Bronchitis and laryngitis are almost the property of the wealthy. 

 Yet many men have paid pleasing compliments to the aristocracy con- 

 cerning their longevity ; but no one has hitherto traced the cause which 

 bows the youthful scion to an early grave, and makes a valetudinarian 

 of the noble who should be still enjoying a vigorous middle life. Inven- 

 tion has been racked to keep the feet warm when within the vehicle ; 

 but it seems not to have occurred to those numerous parties whose office 

 it is to minister to the luxuries of the rich, that the interior of a carriage 

 might be benefited by a secure lodging, or by its being thoroughly aired. 

 Such conveyances, for hours, during the most rainy nights, crowd about 

 the doors of fashionable mansions, the woolen lining or the cotton cover- 

 ing of the interior imbibing the malaria which resides in the heavy mid- 

 night atmosphere of most large towns. Women, in the tenderest dawn 

 of approaching maturity, and flushed with the pleasure of the dance, 

 enter these seemingly-sheltered receptacles, where, lulled by the motion, 

 they soon fall asleep. Activity is changed for instantaneous stagnation ; 

 the bustle of amusement for the stillness of repose ; the heated room for 

 the coid interior of a damp carriage ; and, during the drive home, every 



