that comparatively few ever take the trouble to learn driving as a fine art. 'I have sometimes,' says a recent writer on the subject, 'been nearly scared out of my wits in driving with a man or woman whose every act displayed ignorance of even first principles. Probably no more grievous insult could be paid to a man than to betray lack of confidence in his capacity to drive, and latterly, when I have been asked to go with a man even to the golf links two miles away, when I knew he did not know how to handle the reins or manage a horse, I have blandly declined. Death comes to all of us, but there seems to be a lack of wisdom in seeking it in such an ignoble fashion.'

"When a grocer or a butcher or any user of a delivery wagon needs a driver, he takes the first chap that comes alonga fat German boy, a newly landed Italian lad-without reference to experience or qualifications. In cities this should be prohibited by ordinance. This inexperience is too dangerous to be tolerated; besides, it is cruel to the horses that are so used. It takes experience to know what may and what may not be done with a horse. Horse-owners would consult their own interests and save money by hiring only competent drivers; but these tradesmen alluded to are handicapped by their own ignorance. In New York the greatest offenders against the proprieties and courtesies of the road are the drivers of the delivery wagons of the yellow journals and the drivers of the mail vans.

The yellow journals get their rules of the road from the same storehouse of cheek that they draw their other obnoxious supplies from; the mail-wagon drivers do as they please under the mistaken notion that there is something sacred and superior in their occupation in carrying the mails that raises them above all local laws. Of course such an idea is pure nonsense. An employee of the United States is just as amenable to local laws as any other citizen. But the idea carries weight, for the mailcarrying contractors are permitted to use horses so unfit for work that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals should interfere. And it

may be added to all this that a man driving a horse must drive all the time to do his full duty to the horse and to others he may meet or pass. There are hundreds of little things that should never be neglected, but the first great principle is to keep your eye on your horse. The horse is not the wonderfully intelligent animal that some think him; on the contrary, he has very little intelligence considering his close relations to mankind. It is the driver who should be intelligent in his control of the horse, and convey his intelligence to the horse by the reins, the whip, and by speech. Genius, some one once said, consisted in the infinite capacity to take pains. That is a capital definition of the art of driving-the good driver must take pains, and keep on taking pains."

When the Spectator had got this far in telling what his friend thought about drivers and driving, it was necessary for him to leave his desk and go out into the street. As he was going over Fourth Avenue, though his mind was perfectly alert, he got wedged in a group of vehicles traveling at different rates of speed. A newspaper wagon struck him slantingly, threw him in front of a grocery cart, which knocked him down, when he was run over by a truck. The next thing the Spectator knew he found himself on a cot in a hospital. As no very serious damage was done, he was back home in a week; but he had lost a week of time, while he had undoubtedly suffered much pain. Bruises and contusions get well, but they are not pleasant when they are green. While the Spectator was lying in the hospital, he could not help wondering whether those drivers who ran him down had not in some occult way known of what he was doing before he ventured out into the street. If they did know, they had their revenge in advance of the offense. The only satisfaction the Spectator possibly has is that his painful mishap supplies a personal illustration of the truth of what his horse-loving friend had told him some time before. This, then, may be properly called a personally conducted excursion into an old field.