AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 49 



Every vicious trait a horse can possess is thoroughly cured 

 by your unequaled skill. You are a practicalist, a utilitarian, 

 an educator in one of the most necessary and recreative 

 branches of polite culture. Indeed, a logical lawyer could 

 raise a fine issue relative to the comparative merits of your 

 skill and that of the statesman. Disparaging no sphere, I 

 would say that the live, practical, successful man in any 

 avocation, is the person we need and the individual we 

 will honor. 



Your grateful class, at this date numbering two thousand 

 five hundred and twenty-three, are of my sentiments, and 

 now delegate me to tender this beautiful present not as a 

 quid pro quo, but merely as a memento. My dear sir, I trust 

 it will be very long ere you require this as a physical staff, 

 but when that period does come, may it equally subserve the 

 mental and heart-man and aid in happy retrospect of Phila- 

 delphia, Philadelphians, and your admiring class, a class that 

 mainly hails you as both a high-toned, social gentleman and 

 the horse educator of the age. 



As Mr. Coates closed his address the great 

 tent resounded with applause. It was an hour 

 and a scene never to be forgotten by me. But 

 as the applause subsided every eye turned to 

 me for the expected response. I had received 

 the cane from the hands of the gentleman who 

 had so fittingly and eloquently presented it, but, 



