2 14 Among Men and Horses. 



He was very an-xious to go abroad on tour with us, but he 

 and my wife could not agree ; for they held totally different 

 views on the manner in which a show ought to be run, and 

 they would say what they thought, especially, when they had 

 waxed warm in argument. As defeat had not altered the 

 opinion of Sample as to the correctness of his own ideas, I 

 felt that if I took him with me he might jib at any suggestion 

 that did not tally with his * system.' Besides, as sailors say, 

 standing rigging makes bad running gear. I grant that I am 

 quite as pig-headed as Sample or anyone else ; but, as I had 

 the money to pay the piper, I thought that I had the right to 

 call the tune. Giving up the idea of taking Sample with me, 

 I proposed to hire his machine ; but he would hear of nothing 

 except selling a ' territory,' as he called and pronounced the 

 right to use the invention in any particular district. As I 

 was not taking any ' territories ' just then, I relinquished the 

 thought of utilising the machine for my own benefit, as well 

 as for that of its patentee. 



That machine had cost Sample five years' work and about 

 3000 in hard cash ; for while the idea was growing in his 

 mind he neglected all other business in the endeavour to give 

 it material form. With the mechanical skill which comes 

 naturally to an American, he had devised it in a very in- 

 genious manner. It consisted of a platform which could be 

 rotated by steam or hand, and which supported a ' crush,' or 

 kind of horse box, in which the patient was to be placed, 

 secured, and then spun round, at any required velocity until 

 all the ' starch ' and ' stuffing ' had been extracted out of him. 

 He was then taken out and used for exhibition purposes. 

 With inexplicable fatuity, the mistake of the first show was 

 repeated. No sufficient proof was given that the animals to 

 be experimented upon, had any ' devil ' in them, and when 

 they were released, the audience was supposed to take for 

 granted that their manifest tameness was entirely due to the 

 efficacy of the machine. My experience with horses con- 

 vinced me that, from a practical point of view, Sample's 



