A Good Showman. 227 



horse another dose of the ' system', and drove it round in his 

 usual fine style to the immense delight and admiration of his 

 audience. 



Another time, when holding a class in America, the 

 animal with which Sample was doing the head and tail trick, 

 fell down the wrong way by accident, and broke its neck. 

 Thereupon, he called out to the irate owner : ' How much 

 did you value that horse at ? ' Forty dollars ' was the reply. 

 ' Here's the money,' said the showman, handing him that 

 amount. * Now gentlemen,' continued Sample, ' if you have 

 got any more vicious horses to be killed, bring them along 

 and I'll settle them up.' His open-handed action of paying 

 and looking pleasant, made him a host of friends, and quickly 

 brought back the forty dollars with liberal interest. 



To be a good showman, a man requires not alone to 

 be clever, ingenious and resourceful ; but must also be ready 

 to utilise flukes as much as well-played strokes. Some of my 

 readers have no doubt heard of Rockwell, the famous 

 American horse tamer and trick teacher. This great expert 

 had broken a pair of horses so admirably to harness, that he 

 was able to drive them about in a town, and make them walk, 

 trot, turn corners, and pull up, without reins ; their entire 

 guidance being accomplished with almost imperceptible 

 movements of the whip. To bring horses, in the open and at 

 liberty, to such a high state of training as this, required an 

 extraordinary amount of skill, patience and time from the 

 teacher. Marvellous as this feat was, Sample accomplished 

 by pure accident the still greater one of driving in tandem a 

 leader which had neither reins nor traces. While touring 

 through Australia, he was asked to break into harness a horse 

 that used to persistently refuse to pull between the shafts. 

 Wishing to take the animal with him to the place at which 

 he was staying, he was going to hitch him to the back of his 

 trap, when the horse becoming frightened by something or 

 the other, broke loose, and successfully resisted all efforts 

 at recapture. Sample, tired of the pursuit, and wishing to 



