SADDLERY AND HARNESS. 



523 



pieoe. In general it is manufactured smooth or plain, but it also can be 

 twisted to any desired degree of severity. 



The " Hanoverian bit," like the majority of imported inventions, is a 

 terrible exaggeration of the worst properties 

 that once were thought sufficiently powerful. 

 Its nature is best expressed by the phrase 

 " hard and sharp," which it has almost solely 

 appropriated. A horse cannot grasp this 

 novelty in its teeth, and thus render futile 

 an unscrupulous master's efforts to punish. 

 "The Hanoverian " enables a rider to con- 

 tinue the agony which may have driven a 

 sensitive creature to the confines of madness. 

 As the sides are movable at pleasure, it is esteemed to be an admirable 

 check for a pulling quadruped. 



THE ELiNOTEEIAN BIT. 



THE 8E0UND0 BIT 



THE CHIFFNET BIT. 



Should none of the foregoing embody the desires of some desperate 

 horseman, there remains another, which is an ugly thing to be put into 

 a living mouth ; it is called the " Segundo bit," and is the most barbarous 

 of all the cruelties in general use. It is manufactured of three sizes ; 

 the longest of which enables any Christian gentleman to inflict the most 

 lively torture upon the meekest of living creatures. 



The "Chiffney bit" was once highly esteemed, and, assuredly, was 

 fully equal to its pretensions ; but it seems lately to have sunk low in 

 public favor. The " Sliding Mouth bit " is the last invention of this 

 kind. It is thought to operate beneficially upon animals which are em- 

 ployed in harness. The mouth piece is reversible, having a rough and 

 a smooth side, and it is much approved of, because it professes to afford 

 the horse something for the mouth to play with. 



The actions of the dumb, however, are easily mistaken. Anything 

 which pains the angles of the mouth, whether it should be a roughened 



