, that first drew the attention of cavalry teachers to the
necessity of affording a firmer _appui_ to the horseman than he can
obtain from stirrups, to keep his feet in contact with which he is
obliged to point his toes downward with painful perseverance. All the
good 'hunting horsemen,' as they are termed, of England and Ireland,
ride with short stirrups. So do the Cossack cavalry, the best troop
horsemen, perhaps, in the world. The Arab rides with very short
stirrups, which makes him look, when mounted, as if he were sitting on a
low chair. But the seat thus obtained by the Arab is not one for men who
have to gallop across a country intersected with fences and other
obstacles. In stirrups, as in most other things, there is a _juste
milieu_; and if the American dragoon is on one side of that, so is the
Arab of the Desert on the other. The late Capt. Nolan, who fell in the
famous charge of the Six Hundred at Balaklava, did much to introduce a
perfect system of horsemanship into cavalry regiments. He published a
work upon the subject, in which he advocates the short stirrup, and
bases his system, generally, upon the hunting style of horsemanship. We
have seen some very bad riders among British cavalry officers, brought
up in the old-school method of seat and band. Indeed, some satirical
writer or another has said there are two professional classes to whom it
is impossible to impart the art of horsemanship--sailors and cavalry
officers: but that was going a trifle too far, as we have seen specimens
of both the one and the other capable of acquitting themselves very well
'across country,' which is the test, _par excellence_, of good riding.
That was in later days, however, and since the reforms of the riding
master.

* * * * *

In spite of some repulsive features, we insert the accompanying picture.
The subject chosen is not of that character which the highest genius
loves to depict; yet it is vigorously drawn, and doubtless true to
nature. At the present time it may be useful as a fair representation of
many specimens of the boasted Southern cavalier.--F. P. S.

THE SOUTHERN COLONEL.

Strolling, one morning in 1847, into a Virginia barroom, I accosted a
little, puffy-looking man with "Major, can you"--whereupon, drawing up
like a bantam, he snapped out, "You're mistaken; I am a colonel;" the
colonel being in those days as peculiar to Southern society as the cross
to southern constellat