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tour with SI 5 clear profits, but he earnestly advised his son to give it 

 up and go to farming. " At this time," says our subject, "I was only 

 20 years old, and knowing full well I was not legally my own master, 

 I asked my father what he would take for the year that remained be- 

 tween bondage and freedom, and he replied $150. I asked him if he 

 would take my note, and he replied that he would. Thus I went 

 my way, after bidding the family farewell, and saying to them all 

 that I should never return until I had made a worthy name for ray- 

 self. My only companion being the buckskin mare, I gave free exhi- 

 bitions with her by driving her without lines. Large numbers would 

 turn out to see my free exhibitions of horsemanship. I then delivered 

 a free lecture on what I could do and could teach the horse-owners 

 and formed a class, making the terms $3 apiece. I traveled in this 

 manner, stopping at many small towns in Massachusetts, arriving at 

 Hazzardviile, Conn., about December 1st, 1876. At this place I 

 wrote my father of my success and invited him to come on and see 

 our exhibition, which he accepted, arriving here on Christmas Day. 



" As I had spent some time in Hazzardviile I had ample time and 

 opportunity to go about and make myself acquainted with the horse- 

 owners and stockmen and succeeded very well in getting them inter- 

 ested in my lectures, and as a consequence I had a large class of 

 scholars. So the night of the exhibition I had a very large audience 

 for that time, my receipts being $212, which was a great inducement 

 for my father to join me in my scheme, and on my suggestion he 

 readily accepted the proposition. It is due myself to here make mention 

 that on my father's arrival I called on him to produce the note I gave 

 him purchasing my manhood, which to his surprise I promptly cashed. 

 We then formed a company under the style of Professor O. R. Gleason 

 & Co., my father being the Company." 



They issued a few days later a 41-page pamphlet, entitled A New Trea- 

 tise on the Training of the Horse, and spent the remainder of the winter in 

 Connecticut, giving exhibitions in numerous towns and cities. In the 

 spring and summer they went through parts of Massachusetts, New 

 York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and in the following December 

 reached the City of Philadelphia. There, in Janiiary, 1878, they gave 

 an exhibition of horsemanship in the old Race Street Bazaar, at which 

 a large gathering of people was present, including many prominent 

 citizens. Messrs. Fiss & Durr, proprietors of a large stable and horse 



