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On Horseback By: Charles Dudley Warner (1829-1900) |
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By Charles Dudley Warner
I "The way to mount a horse" said the Professor. "If you have no ladder put in the Friend of Humanity." The Professor had ridden through the war for the Union on the right
side, enjoying a much better view of it than if he had walked, and knew
as much about a horse as a person ought to know for the sake of his
character. The man who can recite the tales of the Canterbury Pilgrims,
on horseback, giving the contemporary pronunciation, never missing an
accent by reason of the trot, and at the same time witch North Carolina
and a strip of East Tennessee with his noble horsemanship, is a kind of
Literary Centaur of whose double instruction any Friend of Humanity may
be glad to avail himself. "The way to mount a horse is to grasp the mane with the left hand
holding the bridle rein, put your left foot in the stirrup, with the
right hand on the back of the saddle, and " Just then the horse stepped quickly around on his hind feet, and looked
the Professor in the face. The Superintendents of Affairs, who occupy
the flagging in front of the hotel, seated in cane bottomed chairs
tilted back, smiled. These useful persons appear to have a life lease
of this portion of the city pavement, and pretty effectually block it up
nearly all day and evening. When a lady wishes to make her way through
the blockade, it is the habit of these observers of life to rise and
make room, touching their hats, while she picks her way through, and
goes down the street with a pretty consciousness of the flutter she
has caused. The war has not changed the Southern habit of sitting
out of doors, but has added a new element of street picturesqueness in
groups of colored people lounging about the corners. There appears to be
more leisure than ever. The scene of this little lesson in horsemanship was the old town of
Abingdon, in southwest Virginia, on the Virginia and East Tennessee
railway; a town of ancient respectability, which gave birth to the
Johnstons and Floyds and other notable people; a town, that still
preserves the flavor of excellent tobacco and, something of the
easy going habits of the days of slavery, and is a sort of educational
center, where the young ladies of the region add the final graces of
intellectual life in moral philosophy and the use of the globes to their
natural gifts. The mansion of the late and left Floyd is now a seminary,
and not far from it is the Stonewall Jackson Institute, in the midst
of a grove of splendid oaks, whose stately boles and wide spreading
branches give a dignity to educational life. The distinction of the
region is its superb oak trees. As it was vacation in these institutions
of learning, the travelers did not see any of the vines that
traditionally cling to the oak. The Professor and the Friend of Humanity were about starting on a
journey, across country southward, through regions about which the
people of Abingdon could give little useful information. If the
travelers had known the capacities and resources of the country, they
would not have started without a supply train, or the establishment
of bases of provisions in advance. But, as the Professor remarked,
knowledge is something that one acquires when he has no use for it. The
horses were saddled; the riders were equipped with flannel shirts and
leather leggings; the saddle bags were stuffed with clean linen, and
novels, and sonnets of Shakespeare, and other baggage, it would have
been well if they had been stuffed with hard tack, for in real life meat
is more than raiment. The hotel, in front of which there is cultivated so much of what the
Germans call sitzfleisch, is a fair type of the majority of Southern
hotels, and differs from the same class in the North in being left a
little more to run itself. The only information we obtained about it was
from its porter at the station, who replied to the question, "Is it
the best?" "We warrant you perfect satisfaction in every respect."
This seems to be only a formula of expression, for we found that
the statement was highly colored... Continue reading book >>
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History |
Travel |
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