The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 7, 1902, Page 1

L ntad A e, HERE'S a flash of buckled harneas. There's a tightening of the rib- bons. There's a twinkling of the whip, They're off! Shé is the smartest thing we have—the w who drives tandem. She must of necessity be dashirig and up- to-date and as high-strung as the leading horse that she holds between a thumb and finger, or she would never essay tandem in the first place. She must be a good dresser to live up to the smartness of her vehicle. S8he must be ready to dare any- thing San Francisco.women have been a bit slow about taking to the whip. Anglo- mania is often the cause of a woman's taking up the fad of driving and Cali- fornia does not breed Anglomaniacs, Our Wwomen are impudently independent and they don’t do anything unless they want to. The mere fact that somebody else does it matters nothing to them. So they bave never had horses as a fad. But there are those among them who love horses for themselves' and can handle their ribbons with the best of them. Some of the women who have come hére from the East have shown us what fun it is to do the driving instead of depend- ing on mere man. So now we are Gom- ing to see smart tandem carts on our country roads, carts where a tailored Jacket and hat and a delicate glove hold sway on the driver's box. That delicate glove shows that it can handle the whip Quite as well as a huskier one; for skill is what counts in tandem driving, and some of our women can turn the course of their leaders by so perfectly aimed a thong as to leave the wheeler wholly un- conscious that his companion is being cor- rected. The Harriman girls had barely reached our coast when all soclety was buzzing about the way they handled their tandem. They can drive with such light shitts of an elbow, a wrist, a thumb, that the horses seem to be taking care of them- selves. But it is sald that they are proof against accidents. No horse ever thinks of such a ghing as taking liberties with them. ° Mrs. Willle Vanderbilt, a California girl in the beginning, has come to be one of the best drivers in the East. She has a daring way of taking risks, but she never fall§ to get herself neatly out of difficulties. She almost got into trouble on one occasion .when she was on a re- mote road. Her leader was a nervous lit- tle animal that could not endure babies. He’' came upon some wayfaring toddler and began to turn directly around. It is no simple matter to have your leader turn. He is likely to slacken his traces until he has an inextricable tangle into which he can weave his legs. He had quickly reached an angle where the reins were of no use. Mrs. Vander- bilt tried her whip then, a thing which she seldom has to resort to. She struck the sinner across the face. This fafled to Lave any effect. The leader continued to turn. Then she showed her steady nerve and presence of mind. Before the tangle was beyond hope she turned the wheeler around and this brought matters stralgit again. Ehe s too good a horsewoman to stop at that. She did not let the horse have his own way. She gave him a lesson then and there upon the subject of her dicta- torship. She turned the animals again and again, narrow road though it was, urtil the leader was thoroughly convinced that he was not master of affalrs, and then she went on in the way that she had set out to go. Mrs. Hermann Oelrichs is also a tan- dem driver. Bhe is a delightful sight perched on the slanting seat, her ribbons held as lightly as if they were the play- things of a cotillion figure instead of the reins upon which both horses depend. Mrs. Harrison, who was Mary Crocker, has returned to California this summer with any amount of skill in the handling of her reins and she may be seen behind a tandem down on the country roads where she is taking her outing. Bhe is Itving very quletly, getting most of her amusement out of her horses. The Downey Harvey daughters were a smart sight behind their tandem and they ere missed now as ons of California’s prettiest pictures. Mrs. Walter Hobart and Mrs, Baillard can handle tandems with good skill. Miss Florence Whittell has heen . doing _the same at Monterey. And now comes Mrs. Jerome Hart, who is not to be satisfled with picking up a smattering of the art, but is taking lessons of a San Jose in- structor and working as serlously at it as a university student works for a doe- tor's degree. She is making wonderful progress and is already dazzling the less daring members of her sex by the way she dashes off be- hind her even-gaited, big-strided wheeler. and her free leader. So the day is at hand when California women will be as clever at the reins as their Eastern sisters. This is too good an art to be condemned as faddish and our Women are too enterprising not to take it up, And when they do something is bound to be doing. Whitelaw Reid's. daughter displayed any amount of skill when she visited our coast. Miss Reid drives a smashing rig when she is at home. It is fitted out ready for long trips, with nose-bags and rugs, with horn and stick-basket, with lamp and clock. She is Lully, equipped to. be belated on any country road. Mrs. Clarence Mackay is another of the Eastern tandem drivers. Miss Kathleen Nielson, who is soon to become Mrs. Reg- inald Vanderbilt, can handle her own dap- per little tandem of ponies with as much skill as many who have been longer years at the art. Many cautious souls, usually fond mam- mas, have objected to tandem driving for women ever since the proctice began. But those who are skilled at it say that it is as safe as any other driving, once you know how, and they never resist the fascination of its speed after they have once mastered the art. Many a fond mamma has had to choke down her ter- <had ‘her wheeler ror while she first watched darling at the ribbons; and although darling may have had her leader waltz in eircles, may have tle jis forelegs im a hard- knot with a slackened trace, may bhave had the cart overturned, even, at a too hasty curve arousid a sharp corner, nevertheless she alwa¥s seems to comas up unharmed, and she and her horse both know better next time. Lady Georglana Curzon is the great au- lhnrfl{ on tandem driving fo# women, and she claims that dangers afe practic- ally nil if the driver knows her businesa. A good driver can almest handle un- broker horses, although it-'is decidediy worth while to first put them through a course of sprouts, that_will give them some notion of what tahdem harness means. The wheelRe has Ifttle to learn; his responsibilities about the same as those of the ordinary. horse that has been used to single harness. * But the leader is generally dazed by his strange positiom, When he feels no ‘shafts, only long traces, and when he ‘realizes that there is an- other horse belind' him, In some way at- tached to him. - After you have once mastered the in- tricacles of the leader’s off-side- rein and the wheeler’s near-side rein that lie upon one finger, and of the other two reins that lie upon ~ another; after you have memorized and learned to put into prae- tice the few rules, such -as: To turn aroynd, shorten th: leader’s reins until the ‘traces are slack, and then pointithe leader in the desired direction; above all, after you have assured your horses that you understand all these things and that you are not going to put-up with any nonlsense; then you have arrived at yous goal. You are that smartest of all smar$ beings—a tandem driver.