36 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



duties of my profession, and early found that 

 my system was appreciated, the class which I 

 here gathered numbering four hundred and four 

 members. On the last day of my stay in Scran- 

 ton my class presented me with what I may 

 justly call a diploma, in the following compli- 

 mentary language : 



The undersigned, citizens of Scranton, Luzerne County, 

 Pa., take this method of assuring all whom it may concern 

 of the practicability, as well as the certainty, with which the 

 most vicious and dangerous habits so common to the horse 

 can be overcome by Prof. O. S. Pratt's system of training, 

 in evidence of which we cite but one or two of the numer- 

 ous cases which have come under our observation as mem- 

 bers of his class : A kicking horse, owned by Jos. Utley, 

 of Greenfield, and brought twenty-two miles, was handled 

 about twenty-five minutes, after which he was driven from 

 the arena with the vehicle rattling behind his heels. This 

 horse would bite, strike and kick. A vicious mule, that 

 could not be shod, and had to be brought to him by force, 

 being chained between two other mules, after being handled 

 by the Professor about forty minutes, was perfectly subdued, 

 and his feet could be handled with safety. On the last day 

 of his exhibition here, a horse ran away near the amphithe- 

 atre, who proved to be a most ferocious kicker. The owner 

 was induced by a number of his class to let the Professor 

 handle him, and after twenty minutes' training he was driven 



