Julia in Hartford to Morris in New Orleans:

“Nell (Helen) has had a young friend staying with her, and they two went down to the station after a trunk with Lady Jane. An engine came up and she began to back, but would have done no damage had it not been for that drunken Charles Griffin, who must needs jump up and catch her by the nose. She won’t let anybody do that, and although Nelly begged him to leave go, he kept hold till she run the wheel into a post and broke it. He came up and said we need not feel any obligations for any little favours he had done, and wanted to borrow “Chris and Otto”. The wheel is mended now, and alright. That is the second time the carriage has been at the shop. The other time the axle was split,nobody knows how.”

Lady Jane was one of the horses, of course. I know of few horses that will tolerate their nose being grabbed as a means to make them stop backing up, especially in harness; most will, as Lady Jane did, keep backing up and usually do so with more haste. 

‘Chris and Otto’ was one of the novels written by Julie.