Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1885 — Saddles Nowadays. [ARTICLE]

Saddles Nowadays.

“Saddles are not wliat they were,” an expert rider remarked in the course of a talk on the benefits and pleasure of excercise on horseback. “Enthusiasts have suggested valuable improvements. CoL Amasa J. Parker, Jr., of Albany, and some other riders have had the theory that they should be brought so close to the horses as to make them sensible of every movement. Saddle, for ladies as well as gentlemen, on plans worked out by them, are low in front and rear, and are very light and graceful. When made of selected .pig-skin, with silver-plated trimmings, 'steel spring bar, silver-plated rubberfooted stirrups, and other appendages of extra quality, the cost is $75. Plain skirt saddles, without knee pnffs or thigh puffs, of the ordinary patern, in imitation of hog-skin, russet leather, or blackleather, can be boug ;t for from sl2 to $27. Park saddle in regular style in the trade run from $lB to S7O. “I saw two saddles the other day for use on the plains and in the mountains of the far west One was a vaquero saddle for ranch use, and the pther was for travelers, physicians, miners, and others. Tho tirst weighed, with its fixtures, about forty-five pounds. With its heavy straps, t live ed leather, big ringa, silver plating, and buckskin thongs it was an aJtair likely to touch the heart of the ambitious cowboy having SOS in his pocket. “The styles bf the saddle for thg weste'nand southern trade fill page alter page of an illustrated catalogue \of one saddler down tbwn. and I could not begin to describe them. They range from those with almo-t do seat for nbont $4 to those with seats, swi at eathers, leg guards, straps, and hooded stirrups,„ elaborately decorated with raised stamp work, and w ith long bn kskin tho* gs hanging from many points, all for-about sso. The varieiies of patte: ns were bewildering. r —New York Sun. ' ... | Iris stated that 90,000 accordeons were sold in the .South last year, and yet the,South wonders why the tide of emigration does not tarn that way.