A correspondent of more than one of the morning papers,
Mr. E. F. Flower, has been descanting with great force and good- sense on the absurdity of bearing-reins, a part of the harness
which has no effect on the horse except an irritating one, and which, when a "gag bearing-rein is used," as it is now more and more frequently in London, is a simple instru- ment of torture. The truth is that the popularity of bearing-reins is due almost entirely to grooms and coach- men, who have an ignorant liking for that uneasy motion of the horse's head which it induces, and which, they think, imposes on the world as "fire." Now a very large number of the class of self-made rich men, having no knowledge of their own of horses, are completely in the hands of their coachmen and grooms, and yield an implicit faith, therefore, to the efficiency of the bearing-rein. If a few long-haired gentlemen or ladies would just try how far it would add to the freedom of their own movements to have their back hair fastened tight down to the small of their waists, they would form a better notion of the delights and utilities of the bearing-rein.
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