Liveryman

“ I thought I was equipped all right as it was, but I said nothing and went on to the livery stable. Here I was shown a horse which I took to at once and was about to mount, when a pair of leggings was brought to me.
“You will need these for your journey,” said the man.
“Journey!” I repeated. “Fifteen miles!”
The livery stable keeper—a half-breed with a peculiarly pleasant smile—cocked up his shoulders with the remark:
“Three men as willing but as inexperienced as yourself have attempted the same journey during the last week and they all came back before they reached the divide. ”

“ Less frequent is the livery cupboard, the meaning of which may be best explained by the following quotation from Spenser’s Account of the State of Ireland:—“What livery is we by common use in England know well enough, namely, that it is an allowance of horse-meat, as they commonly use the word stabling, as to keep horses at livery; the which word I guess is derived of livering or delivering forth their nightly food; so in great houses the livery is said to be served up for all night—that is, their evening allowance for drink.” ”

“ The idea of wearing livery was not in his eyes, what it would be in ours, a part of his humiliation, for it was then customary for gentlemen, as well as servants, to wear the livery of their employers. ”

“ That vehicle, originally used by some New England doctor, in the early part of the past century, had but one seat, and besides, was not going the way I intended to take, so I was forced to seek a conveyance at a livery-stable. At the only livery establishment in the place, kept by a "cullud pusson," who, though a slave, owns a stud of horses that might, among a people more movingly inclined, yield a respectable income, I found what I wanted—a light Newark buggy, and a spanking gray. Provided with these, and a darky driver, who was to accompany me to my destination, and return alone, I started. ”

“ Those who affect an elegant Equipage, usually give their Coachman annually, say Two handsome Suits of what is termed the best Second Cloth (what is called Livery Cloth is a little cheaper, but much coarser, and not half so serviceable) .
For those who make but little use of their Carriage, One Livery a Year, or Two in Three Years, is enough, especially if you give a Working-dress, as the Livery is then worn merely when he mounts the Box to drive. ”

“ They wear, if not a uniform, a livery. All these things are true. But I tell you this, which is no less true. Not one of those Mahommedan servants would die wearing the livery, acknowledging their service. ”

“ We still speak of livery stables, but this does not mean that there coachmen and grooms who wear livery attend to horses, but that the horses themselves receive there their livrée—delivery of so many feeds of oats. ”

“ Correct Groom’s Livery
For country wear, particularly in summer, this full-dress livery is too hot and looks out of place, so that an undress livery should be worn. The best style of undress livery is a morning or cutaway coat with three buttons in front and two in the back, cut like any morning coat, but a little higher in the neck, and breeches and leggings of the same material, or perhaps leather puttee leggings. This livery is made of covert cloth or whip-cord, and the color may be any shade of gray or any shade of tan. ”

“ I had been lodging in a livery stable in Washington. I had a box-stall and unnumbered horse-blankets all to myself. In return for such sumptuous accommodation I took care of a string of horses each morning. I might have been there yet, if it hadn't been for the bulls.
One evening, about nine o'clock, I returned to the stable to go to bed, and found a crap game in full blast. It had been a market day, and all the negroes had money. It would be well to explain the lay of the land. The livery stable faced on two streets. ”

“ In the great houses, servants out of livery help to the different plats, servants in livery holding the dishes, sauces, etc., and changing the plates. I believe it is strictly haut ton for the servants in livery to do nothing but assist those out of livery. In America it is thought stylish to give liveries; in Europe those who keep most servants out of livery are in the highest mode, since these are always a superior class of menials. The habits of this quarter of the world give servants a very different estimation from that which they hold with us. ”

“ Pig and Pepper
OR a minute or two she stood looking at the house, and wondering what to do next, when suddenly a footman in livery came running out of the wood— (she considered him to be a footman because he was in livery: otherwise, judging by his face only, she would have called him a fish) —and rapped loudly at the door with his knuckles. ”

“ Liverymen, name given to members of the several guilds or corporations of London and freemen of the city, so called as entitled to wear the livery belonging to their respective companies; they possess certain privileges of a civic character. ”

“ They take their departure from the church door, and the approved style seems to be post-chariots and four, with the blinds closed, and postillions in liveries, wearing large white cockades, or bridal favours. The sight is so common as to attract little attention in the streets, though I dare say the slightest departure from the established seemliness might excite newspaper paragraphs.
You have not the smallest conception of what a livery is. ”

“ He engages the livery rigs to take the men out on the country routes, and when he gets through with the livery stable business he hunts up all the almost food places in town until he finds one that will feed the advance car men for five or ten cents a meal. ”

“ Instead of all master artisans or tradesmen in any one industry holding an equal position and taking an equal part in the administration of affairs of the craft, there came, at least in some of the larger companies, to be quite distinct groups usually described as those "of the livery" and those "not of the livery." The expression no doubt arose from the former class being the more well-to-do and active masters who had sufficient means to purchase the suits of livery worn on state occasions, and who in other ways were the leading and controlling members of the organization. ”

“ Past the window at this instant the car was moving, drawn by a humble-minded horse, which in its turn was drawn by a boy in a faded and dilapidated livery that had evidently been originally made for a remarkably tall man. ”

“ I made my rounds every time the freight came to a halt.
There were other cars, filled with steers, sheep, and pigs.
Each kind of animal behaved according to its nature, during the trip. The steers soon accepted their cramped, moving life rather stolidly. The calves acted as if dumbfounded, in stupefied, wide-eyed innocence ... the sheep huddled as sheep do ... but the big fat porkers were the most intelligent ... like intelligent cowards that fully know their fate, they piled in heaping, screaming, frenzied masses ... in scrambling heaps in the centre of their cars ... ”

“ Livery Service.—The livery stables of the city are numerous, and well-stocked with animals of blood and speed, and every form of two or four-wheeled vehicles from the substantial, three-seated thorough-braced wagon to the elegant or fancy single buggy or sulky. ”

“ Each time the drivers turned out an animal the whole mass was thrown into the utmost confusion, and it required the most consummate skill{187} on the part of the men to prevent the entire dispersion of the cattle. The fearlessness with which the drivers plunged into that labyrinth of savage, panting brutes, advancing close upon the wall of bristling horns which barred their progress, and boldly driving the infuriated creatures before them like a pack of sheep, was truly worthy of admiration. ”

“ The livery-stable keepers made fortunes by hiring out the one or two real sleighs; but poor or economical people constructed boxes of all shapes and fastened them on runners, making up in the merriment of the passengers for the uncouthness of the vehicles. ”

“ Our big footmen figured for the first time—the four in their blue and silver livery were at the door when the Maîtres des Cérémonies arrived, and Pierson with his chain in the anteroom. They looked very well; Lhermite and our coachman saw the whole thing, and were not at all impressed with carriages, liveries, or horses. They said the carriages were absolutely shabby, the liveries neither well made nor well put on, and the horses beneath criticism. ”

“ Our books give hundreds of similar stories, where a free country-life and the amusements and sports of the farmers, when work is slack, have gratified healthfully the vagrant appetite. The mere riding a horse, or owning a calf or a lamb, or trapping an animal in winter, seems to have an astonishing effect in cooling the fire in the blood in the city rover, and making him contented. ”

“ The rumbling of wheels, the clatter of hoofs, the cracking of whips was heard, and out of a cloud of dust appeared a carriage drawn by six horses, and accompanied by lacqueys and outriders in magnificent liveries. ”

“ The type itself set by that balance of conditions and forces we call "natural selection." As the environment changes they must be adapted to it, if they cannot so adapt themselves they die. Those who live are, by living, proven capable of maintaining themselves. Every creature which has remained on earth, while so many less effective kinds died out, remains as a conqueror. The speed of the deer—the constant use of speed—is what keeps it alive and makes it healthy and beautiful. The varied activities of the life of a leopard are what have developed the sinuous gracile strength we so admire. ”

“ By gradual changes, caused by the tendency of the animals to vary and by the action of the surroundings upon the animal in preserving these variations, there was eventually produced our present horse, an animal with legs adapted for rapid locomotion, with feet particularly fitted for the life in open fields, and with teeth which serve well to seize and grind herbage. Knowledge of this sort was also used by Darwin to show that constant changes in the form of animals have been taking place since life began on the earth. ”

“ In the management, however, of horses in England, the conditions of the case are totally different. Tied to mangers, in which they feast on dry oats, beans, and hay, no sooner do they leave their stables than the very sight of creation animates them; every carriage that trots by, and every rider that passes, excites them. ”

“ They should put him in their gew-gaw livery—green, gold, and scarlet—in which they dress up their disguised "bullies," who prowl about the room, ready to rush up on the slightest signal of a disturbance. ”

“ Some of these keep their groom and coachman, who [Pg 26] dress in livery of a quiet and subdued kind, but still unmistakably a livery. The middle-class come in in traps, or old-fashioned four-wheelers, generally bringing their wives and daughters, to do the shopping of the week. ”

“ We saw several with their young feeding on a wide, open, grassy plain, and selecting one old bird for experiment, we drove round him in our carriage, gradually decreasing the distance, the bird turning round and staring stupidly all the while at the vehicle, until the driver was almost within reach of him with his whip. ”

“ During this operation, the horse, from dread and astonishment at thus being bound round the waist throws himself over and over again on the ground, and, till beaten, is unwilling to rise. At last, when the saddling is finished, the poor animal can hardly breathe from fear, and is white with foam and sweat. The man now prepares to mount by pressing heavily on the stirrup, so that the horse may not lose its balance; and at the moment that he throws his leg over the animal's back, he pulls the slip-knot binding the front legs, and the beast is free. ”

“ Though they have that power they exercise it in their wild lives for their own sakes alone, in the intermittent way which is bound up with their habit of life, and not for the sake of man, as in the case of the horse.
The pectoral and inguinal regions of the domestic horse are two of the most valuable fields in the mammalian body for studying the formation by muscular action of patterns of hair, for this animal is the locomotive animal par excellence. ”

“ The race-horses are trained not only to stand with their hoofs touching a line, but to draw all four feet together, so as at the first spring to bring into play the full action of the hind-quarters. In Chile I was told an anecdote, which I believe was true; and it offers a good illustration of the use of a well-broken animal. A respectable man riding one day met two others, one of whom was mounted on a horse, which he knew to have been stolen from himself. ”

“ Another wants heavy draught-horses, with legs like great pillars under them, and thick, muscular necks—horses weighing nearly a ton apiece and able to draw the heaviest trucks. What a contrast between these slow but powerful animals and the graceful, prancing racer with legs like pipe-stems—fleet and agile, but not strong enough to draw a heavy load!
All these different breeds of horses have been developed since man succeeded in capturing the wild horse and making it help him. ”

“ So runs the invitation yelled from half a dozen lusty, though dusty throats. For this occasion every livery stable in the place brings out all the ramshackle conveyances it has. Everything on wheels is pressed into service. ”

“ These winged creatures precede the carriage; no matter how rapid the pace of the horses, they are always in advance, carrying, lightly poised in one hand, high in the air, a long lance-like wand. Their gait is the most beautiful motion I have ever seen. ”

“ The servant, now become a driver, rides the near saddled horse, the wife is mounted on another, the worthy husband shoulders his gun, and his sons, clad in plain substantial homespun, drive the cattle ahead, and lead the procession, followed by the hounds and other dogs. Their day's journey is short, and not agreeable; the cattle, stubborn or wild, frequently leave the road for the woods, giving the travellers much trouble ”