able-door and the privet gate at a smart
trot, only to burst into a headlong gallop a little farther on down the
road. To the seasoned riders it was all well enough, but to beginners,
those nervous about horses, fearful about themselves! The first day, not
having ridden in years and being uncertain as to my skill, I could
scarcely stay on. Several days later, I by then having become a
reasonably seasoned rider, it was Mr. Itzky who appeared on the scene,
and after him various others. On this particular trip I am thinking of,
Mr. Itzky fell or rolled off and could not again mount. He was miles
from the repair shop and Culhane, discovering his plight, was by no
means sympathetic. We had a short ride back to where he sat lamely by
the roadside viewing disconsolately the cavalcade and the country in
general.

"Well, what's the matter with you now?" It was Culhane, eyeing him most
severely.

"I hef hurt my foot. I kent stay on."

"You mean you'd rather walk, do you, and lead your horse?"

"Vell, I kent ride."

"All right, then, you lead your horse back to the stable if you want any
lunch, and hereafter you run with the baby-class on the short block
until you think you can ride without falling off. What's the good of my
keeping a stable of first-class horses at the service of a lot of
mush-heads who don't even know how to use 'em? All they do is ruin 'em.
In a week or two, after a good horse is put in the stable, he's not fit
for a gentleman to ride. They pull and haul and kick and beat, when as
a matter of fact the horse has a damned sight more sense than they
have."

We rode off, leaving Itzky alone. The men on either side of me--we were
riding three abreast--scoffed under their breath at the statement that
we were furnished decent horses. "The nerve! This nag!" "This bag of
bones!" "To think a thing like this should be called a horse!" But there
were no outward murmurs and no particular sympathy for Mr. Itzky. He was
a fat stuff, a sweat-shop manufacturer, they would bet; let him walk and
sweat.

So much for sympathy in this gay realm where all were seeking to restore
their own little bodies, whatever happened.

So many of these men varied so greatly in their looks, capacities and
troubles that they were always amusing. Thus I recall one lean iron
manufacturer, the millionaire president of a great "frog and switch"
company, who had come on from Kansas City, troubled with anaemia,
neurasthenia, "nervous derangeme