PEKSONAL EXPEEIENCE. 475 



the "woods, and worked on him until confident that I had 

 him under control. When it became known that I intended 

 to drive him in the streets, it caused great excitement. 

 Many called it mere fool-hardiness, and tried to prevent it ; 

 but failing, they all came into the street to witness the per- 

 formance. My jockey friend volunteered his assistance, 

 but I told him I needed no help, and that I believed I could 

 show him some things he didn't know yet. When ready 

 to start, a couple of men in the crowd began to fight, one 

 of them being knocked down, and falling directly under- 

 neath the horse. To the surprise of everybody, he stood 

 perfectly still until the man was taken away, and then 

 started off like any gentle family horse. His altered be- 

 havior aroused the suspicion that the horse had been 

 " doped," or drugged ; but as he remained perfectly gentle 

 during the entire time I remained in the place, the mystery 

 surrounding the affair was very great. 



After spending nearly a year traveling in the South, I 

 returned North, and finally brought up in Pittston, Pa. 

 While here, there boarded in the same house with me a 

 book-canvasser, who came in one morning and said he had 

 made $3 in a couple of hours' time. I thought this was 

 doing exceedingly well for a cold^ rainy morning, and it 

 led to my starting out to get names for him on commission. 

 I succeeded that afternoon and the next day in obtaining 

 seven orders, which so encouraged me that I bought him 

 out, and industriously pushed this new business with great 

 success among the coal-dealers between there and Hawley. 



During one of these canvassing peregrinations I hap- 

 pened to put u]3 over night with a man named A. L. Burns, 

 at Dunning, Lackawanna Co. This gentleman was an in- 

 telligent, progressive farmer, who had raised a fine Hamil- 

 tonian stallion, then past two years old, which proved of 

 a very vicious temper. 



