AN "EDUCATED" HORSE 175 



so could not induce him to perform his usual tasks. At once the writer 

 called upon Professor Cooley, an expert on horses, who was in the audi- 

 ence, and who had seen the performance from the start, to take charge 

 of the horse, which he did, with exactly the same result as the writer 

 had. Next the principal of the high school in Miles City, who could 

 not be accused of any skepticism regarding the horse's ability, or any 

 want of sympathy for him, was asked to put King through his paces, 

 but he could not get a single intelligent reaction from him. It ought 

 to be added that the writer was simply neutral in his attitude toward 

 the horse throughout the trainer's performances; he did not praise or 

 censure; he simply took notes on each event, which impressed both the 

 trainer and some of the observers as denoting a too critical and un- 

 sentimental relation. 



It was to be expected that the trainer of King would explain his 

 disappointing behavior as due to the paralyzing influence of strange 

 personalities, and indisposition of some sort, for he had "never acted 

 that way before." So another experiment was determined upon, and it 

 was agreed that Dr. Boyd should handle the horse himself next time, 

 and the writer would simply tell him what tests should be made. Now, 

 it was mentioned above that in the language and arithmetic tests, the 

 trainer as well as the audience saw the letters and figures, which made 

 it impossible to eliminate the trainer's influence in guiding his horse, 

 even though he might be unconscious of it. In order to try out this 

 point it was decided, and it was thought without the trainer's knowl- 

 edge, to prepare new blocks with letters and figures only on one side, 

 and to arrange them on the rack so that the trainer could not see them 

 while directing King, but so that the horse and the observers could see 

 them. It was also decided to blindfold the trainer while the horse was 

 being tested on his ability to discriminate colors, and to select special 

 ones to give to persons to whom he had been introduced. Strangely 

 enough, just before the tests were to be made the trainer declared that 

 King had suddenly been taken sick, and could not be tested, though 

 " nothing like it had ever happened to him before." To clear up the situ- 

 tion, which looked very bad, Dr. Boyd promised to bring King to Madi- 

 son, Wisconsin, for further experiments before January 15, 1912; but 

 from that day to this (October 1, 1912) it has been impossible to get any 

 response from him, though King is still amazing people with his " hu- 

 man intelligence." 



Any one familiar with horses knows that they are capable of keen 

 responses of a particular kind. They can very acutely distinguish tones 

 of voice in respect to their denoting gentleness, or harshness, or weak- 

 ness, or sternness in their possessors. Dogs have the same sort of keen- 

 ness. Very young children, before they understand a single word as a 

 symbol of meaning, can discriminate a number of shades in vocal qual- 



