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Show H LJ HVS In the Art of Tooling a Coach They Are More Clever Than the Women , Ql Hi v. S - - L2fl ' England or France and Men Have Handed Them the Reins 9l M ' '& t -t'-aBr. r"1 I H Mmm J - MIIIWI I !!!! w--rn-1nI-TnnMTln,7-rT1-m H Harriet Alexander Driving Ladies' Coaching Club in Bronx Park, H in New York Hj (Copjrlsbt, 1012. hj the Kotv York Herald Co. A, rlcUls rcstrvi.il.) WITH the first appearance of spring buds in Central Park, New York city, the clarion notes . of the lully-ho Lorn will be heard H and the 1012 reason of (he H Ladies' Four-in-IInnd Driving H Club will have been opened. Already plans H arc under way, and Miss Harriet AIcx- H andcr. tlio club's secretary, declares this H will be the busiest and most successful H treason in the club's history. H , American women vliip3 arc pro- Hl nouueed by experts to be the best in H the world. Not only arc they the most H enthusiastic conrlicrs, but, ay these ex- H pert, thcvii r of coaching in America H lies in the Lands of its women. Already H they liave far outstripped their brothers H in this most royal of sports, and to-day H it is almost as much of a novelty to sec H a man tooling a coach as it was to sec H , a woman handling the ribbons over park H fours a very few years a so. To-day there H arc scores of women who tool coaches in H and around New 1'ork city, and each H year the number increases. The membcr- H ship of the Ladies' Four-in-H-and Club is H recruited to its full strength and the wait Hj ( iug list is comfortably filled. H F. Morris Howictt, who perhaps hns HL f instructed more women in the art of tool- H I us? a coach than any other professional H on this side of the water, unequivocally Hj asserts Hut the women whips of England H and France arc far inferior to ours. H "The American woman hns all the char- H actcrlstics thnt go to make a good whip," H says Mr. Howictt. "She Is enthusiastic, Hl in the Grat place. Then, again, she never HJ takes up a pport unless it is with the full H determination to excel in it. She has H an abundanco of nerve and by this I Hj mean good, steady nerves a good eye H and splendid hands. That if a coiubinu- Hi tion that must pla'c her in the first rank of -whips, and so apt a pupil has s-Jie H proved that shr has slowly but surely H ' crowded her brother into n back scat H until he hns practically abandoned the uport in her favor." H New York's Annual Parade. Hl In support of this assertion Mr. Howictt H cites the annual parade of the New York H Four-in-Hand Club. A few years ngo H this brilliant function used to bring out Hl Sfteeu or twenty coaches, each beautifully B appointed, with tonic well known and H fashionable New Yorker handling the ff ribbons over his blue blooded four. Now- ff adayt; it is with great dilliculty that its one time devotees of coaching can be coaxed out even for this occasion, and it H is an equally well known fact. that at .-several of the more rcccut of these func- tions nici) who once boasted of the finest fours in the country drove hired liorecs. The old timers do make a pretence of H maintaining an interest in the sport, but H the younger members of New York's wealthy and fashionable circles, with the exception of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt and Paul A. Sorg, evince little or no iu- H tcrest in coaching, and they make no pre- H tencc of disguising their attitude toward B But what the men lack in interest or H initiative call it what you will is more H 'than made up for by tho enthusiasm of B the women. Not only are tlicy seen daily ! in the parks and the surrounding suburbs H dexterously guiding their spauking fours H up hill and down dale, but they luno H made endurauce runs that equal, if not H exceed, anj- records hung up by men H coachers. Weather, seemingly, has no H terrors for them, and when a long dis- H tance run is scheduled "My Lady" is in- H variably on band, and furthermore, every H 6 eat on the coach in filled by other H women who arc quite as enthusiastic na H , the one selected for the box scat on this H Mrs. Thomas Hastings has done as much as if not more than any other New York woman to arouse and sustain inter- 3t in coaching. Mrs. Hastings comes H na tin-ally by her love for Horses, cspecfal- fl '.y those liarncscd to a coach, lire, Hast- M.. i ings. is the donor of the Bagatelle Cup, which is annually competed for by women whips at the Piping Rock llorse Show, and then, too, she was the first president of the Ladies' Four-ln-Hand Club. This cup was won the first year by Mrs. Arthur Iselin. Miss Alexander captured it the second year, while Miss Marian Holllns won it last summer. Interest in coaching for women really began to mnnifcat itself here in 1000. Of course several years prior to then women were occasionally seen driving a coach through the park, but a man was invariably invari-ably on the box seat beside her. In the spring of 1007 iuteresL reached fever heat, and a trip was proposed to Tuxedo Park, with Miss Harriet Alexander as hastes?, to the members of the club at a luncheon. Accordingly the old coach Defiance, fatuous fa-tuous when the property of the late "Fafty" Rates, who won ribbons galore with it, and now owned by C. Leilyard Blair, was made ready for the forty mile trin. That trip will go down in coaching annals an-nals as one, of the most remarkable ever undertaken in New York by man or woman. wom-an. The actual distance is thirty-nine and thrcc-quurters miles, and the time consumed between New York and Tuxedo was four hours and twenty-minutes. The actual driving time was three liours and .forty-two minutes. The rate, without with-out chauges, was 10.7 miles an hour. With changes the rate was 0.1 miles an hour. Famous Tuxedo Drive. The start was matte from No. '1 West Fifty-eighth btrect. New York city. Mrs. I Hastings drove the first lap, and after crossing the ICOth street ferry and thence, to the "DndcrclifTe ferry house a cock hor.sOj was attached to negotiate the Meep hill beyond. At Leonia a change of liorscs was made, while other changes were1 made at Areola, Allendale and Suf-fern Suf-fern Arriving at Tuxedo at one minute min-ute after twelve o'clock, or one minute bebiud :,chcduic time. luncheon was served at the Tuxedo Club. The rcluru trip was begun at two o'clock, and changes were made at the same Atations, the coach rolling up to the original starting point at siv o'clock P. M or eight minutes ahead of its schedule. Others who drove during various btnges of tLc trip were Miss Bryco, Miss Gulliver, Gulli-ver, Miss Twombly, Mrs. Loew and Miss Alexander. In commenting on this trip Mr. Howictt How-ictt aid: "I have arranged and witnessed wit-nessed inuny coaching trips on this and the, other side of the Atlantic, but the Tuxedo drive will go down in history as oue of the most famous ever negotiated. There wasn't a hitch, und when you paune to consider that it was the first long distance trip ever attempted by women it is all tho more remarkable. It was a hilly country from beginning to end and they encountered many b.ul pieces of road, but that made no differ-1 ence They picked out the best places like veteraua and nothing deterred them , from adhering strictly to schedule from start to finish. Better time was made on tho return trip, due, of course.' -to the down grade. OnI, four hours and twenty- ; eight minutes was consumed on Hie re-, re-, turn trip, or three hours and twenty-eight twenty-eight minutes actual driving time. The rate "Without changes was 11.4 miles an , hour and the rate with changes was 0 8 , miles an hour. The average time for changes on the up trip was five minute, and that for the return journey bix min-. min-. utcs." Every yar since then tho Ladies' Fonr-; Fonr-; in-Hand Club has negotiated a long distance dis-tance drive and each has heen attended ( by auccejrt. The club's second outing was almost as much of a record breaker a& . the first. That summer FJorbam Park , was selected as the objective point, a dis- tancc of fofty-onctand., oiigrhalf ,nilcs.' The whipsr on thatf'occaaior"Were Mra." Mrs, Thomas Hastings Taking Ladies' Coaching Club for a Drive. VS Mrs. C. Oliver Iselin on Box Scat g'Jl1' '" " '"'wa.iiiniiiwi 'sx SS Thomas Hastings, Miss Gulliver, Mr. Itiimsoy, then Mis Mary Ilnrrimnn, Miss Carey and Miss Twombly. Five changes were made. The start was from the club house, at twenty minutes before eight A. M., arriving nt ten minutes past twelve noon. The return trip was started at ten minutes past two P. M finishing at the club house, in Fifty-eighth Fifty-eighth street, at twenty minutes to hcven P.' M. LikV the first run. this was marred by no accident and the whips negotiated their respective laps in splendid splen-did style, not a mishap arising to cause I delay or discomfort. Since then there have been runs to .Greenwich and other points, and this I spring a trip is being planned which will be far more pretentious thnn any yet undertaken. The objective point hasn't been definitely settled yeti nor has the schedule been arranged, but a comparatively compara-tively now comer in the four-in-hand ranks. Miss Marian ETollins, and one of the best whips in the world, according to experts, will take a prominent part in the run. The Sport in Paris. Coiching for women received its first impetus in Paris, and it was an American woman who figured in thai affair. Mrs Thomas Hitchcock, then Miss Lnla Eustis. drove a public coach from the Hkh.vld's Pans office to Versailles. The vogue she set became sO popular that weekly trips were made over this course with women whips on' the box. A few years prior to Miss Kustis' feat tho Countess de P-ufiioro had loojed a c"oach through Paris' and she was heralded far and wide for the innovation ulie had made. In 1001 the Ladies' Four-in-IIand Driving Club was organized, and from its inception Mrs, Hastings has been one of its mo.t active members., In fact. Mrs. Hastings drove the first public coach lo be tooled by a woman in New York, und on that occaulou the .starting point was from the Herald Building, In Herald square. A brake owned by'Mis-s Helen Barney was frequently fccu after this iu Ccntrjil Park, which she either drove herself or had placed at the disposal dis-posal of other women whips. Miss Marian IIolllus is at her best when discussing coaching, and her euthusiasm has no hounds. "Hnciiig is referred lo as the port of kings-," said Miss Holllns recently, "but I don't think it compares with couching In the first place, I think it requires moro training, and in copcqucnco mpie dexterity-, to handle four horses to a coach than it does to pilot "a ruuuer around a beaten track. The tame hazards do not rise in racing thut ever' couclier encounters. encoun-ters. The woman who can handle a four well, and by that I mean getting ail there Is in thcui out of her span and at the fcaine time nevpr fretting them and reserving 'their strength for' the supreme Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, Mrs. Richard P McGrann on Box Seat tests, is a good horsewoman in fact, the very highest type of horsewoman " When asked what she deemed the best qualifications for a good whip Miss Hol-lins Hol-lins promptly replied: "Common sense, of course. It's all a question of good hard hor.se sense, u good eye. good judgment and, us we say in driving circles, good hands. By the hitter I mean u good whip must maintain a firm hold on her reins, steady her horses ut all times, especially her leaders, and at the yamc time not tug ut her line or fret her team. A horse knows the minute min-ute a novice tukes the reins. It is the timid and nervous driver who invariably comes to grief, and the reason for tins is that the horses have no confidence in the one holding the reins and become nervous and fretful too. Good hands are just as essential as strong ones, for driving a coach tuxes a woman's strength tremendously tremen-dously und I have. finished many a spin through the park with arms and hands fnlrly aching. But, like nny other sport, one bos to trnin for coaching, and train long and intelligently." The Ladies Four-in-IIand Club has a very .stringent set of rules which govern Its members while on the rend. Flues aro imposed for the slighcst infraction of the 'rules, and these linea go to 'the guurds or grooms. For instance, when the 'club coach starts out for a park or road run the whip for this occasion ia clo&ely wntched by the club member who sits beside her on the box. If on crossing car tracks tho whip doesn't take it from tho proper angle, thus lessening the jar and shock to the coach, she is fined twenty-five cents. If in turniug a street corner the v heels of tho coach scrape ' against the curbing the whip is fined. Rules of the Road. The rules cover a multitude of points. The reins must be taken up. laid down or held iu a prescribed fashion, and there is no deviation from this style. A critical criti-cal member may observe that the whip , is not getting the best out of her team, , that the leaderh are doing too much or . too little, or that the leaders' traces aro allowed to become too slack. Sho at , once calls the attention of the whip to : her delinquency und the fine is handed 1 over at the termination of the journey. l One of the club members laughingly T remarked that la the earlier days of the s club tho guards hud a good thing of it, as l the fines were So numerous that they totalled a good round purse at every trip, Now it is dift'cieut. The women n have become so proDcient ami ruamfostit so much pride in their driving that ajB fine is an execution rathor than the rule.' So careful wcro tho women who drove in' j. the larious stages of the FJorham Park 'J trip, It, is said, that not one was fined. All enme through with perfect scores, and it was a long, tiresome trip at that. But coaching nmong women is not confined con-fined entirely lo members of lhc Ladies' Four-in-IIuud Club by any means. There are many other women who not only frequently drive through our parks and suburbs, but own their own coaches and brakes as well. Mrs. Dan Ilnuna is a line whip, mid she frequently drives in Central Park with her brake and four. Miss. Maud Kahn, daughter of Otto Ivahn, is another enthusiastic whip, and a capital capi-tal one. too. This in a measure is natural, nat-ural, since her father is a splendid whip and once went in extensively for coaching. coach-ing. Mrs. II. V. Meredith, of Montreal, who is a frequent vistor to'Xuw York, Koinetinies brings her coach and four with h'T, and ho is a familiar figure in Central Park on such occasions, Mrs, K. T Ticdmaii, Mrs. 55. W. Kncll, .Mrs. fli.irlos W. Willininsou and Mrs. LJdwurd MaeLeau, the. latter Of Washington, arc all well known in coaching circles heie and all drive their own coaches. But the Inck of interest manifested by wealthy young men In coaching is -still a is too much taken- up with clubs and jfjiSsH cnnls and other distractions which stand $dpjM for Lite hours to permit of his arising iSfjS early and getting out with his coach and N&jfl four. The' men who have tried it know VaP thut they must keep in condition if tbey KSS) expect to make good whips, and it isHn- Cflll dolence more than anything else which 8j allows Interest in coaching to Hag. It is bHI n sport to which, if he hopes to excel, HwjH oneilnust devoto'lots of time and money. f&H Certainly it Is not a lack of money that vH deters our gilded yontlf from joining our Wk ranks, for there are so'many big fortunes 1 here in .New York now that it is hard to JU keep trnck of them. But, as"l said. I fear , ?9H It is indolence. The average man of wealth IH loves his bed and other luxuries too much 'sttlHl to make the exertion to become an expert ?Bfl whip." T The Next Annual Parade. It is expected that at least twenty Jl coarhcK will be in line when the Ladies 91 Four-iu-IIaud Club holds its annual 91 parade this spring. Unless the present H plans of the ollicers of the club miscarry, H women whip- from ncishlbring cities w ill come to New' York with their coaches 9H and participate in the run. For the last SM two ycursvtherc have been more coach03 ''H in Jinc for the ladies' parade than appeared B iu the men's annual turnout, and this H year is expected the banner parade of all. flH One of tlic club members remarked ili.it jH & - - BH , ' Miss Marion Hollins jB . question of deep concern lo all who love coaching for coaching's sake. Several women of the Four-in-Hand Club, approached ap-proached on the subject, said that they didn't care to be quoted, for the reason that it would engender bad feeling. All were a unit in declaring, however, that to enjoy coaching an unusual amount of enorgy must be displayed. "Our women of fashion," said one of the club members, "have been accused of sloth. Well, to contradict that assertion I would suggest that u few of our critics ari-e at six o'clock and take a day's run with us sometime. I am safe In predicting that they will seek their beds with a good hen I thy weariness which will insure them the best night s sleep they have had in a lifetime. Tho average man, I um afraid, -.UVIMUUll'MAUIAUMUUltMtlM' when Alfred G. Vnnderbilt returns to BWW .New York he will no doubt take active hH steps to revive interest in coaching 9H among his men friends. He. has done ;3H much to this cud in Englaud, and it is uiH believed that he will start a public coach jjBMl nerc which will prove quite' as popular 15BH as his celebrated London to Brighton '?9Ki tours. He will no doubt be nhly seconded fclB by Paul A. Sorg, who wound up his coach- 4iSH iug career with a run to Atlantic City KH after having conducted several runs to 19B Lukewood. His Atlantic City trip was the H longest ever attempted from New York. HM But as matters now stand the women H have far the best of it, and they declare H they intend to maintain the biiprcmacy H they have established in coaching at H UUtUUMlVlUllllUVMMMltA1 HI |