496 PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 



and the cross-piece strike against the horse's quarters, 

 would he not kick and run away?" He looked at me in 

 surprise, saying, " I guess he would. I know I would not 

 want to be in the wagon and have it strike him. He ran 

 away once, and tore the carriage to j)ieces." I said to him, 

 " I will pass you into my class free if you will let me have 

 your horse ten minutes." Consenting, I told the people what 

 the horse would do, which was known to be true. Know- 

 ing from the disposition of the horse that there would be 

 no difficulty in his subjection, I got in Avith the man, tell- 

 ing him to drive quickly to the edge of the village. As 

 soon as out of sight of the crowd, I jumped out, first mak- 

 ing the owner promise he would not tell any one what I 

 did, and made the horse submit to control in three or four 

 minutes, then drove back raj)idly with both breeching-straps 

 loose. When I reached the middle of the crowd, I threw 

 the reins out, and called sharply, "Whoa!" when he in- 

 stantly stopped, holding the wagon back with his heels. 

 The quicker the feat could be done, and the greater the 

 chances taken, the more surprising and startling it would 

 prove. The main point of success was in being able to 

 know how much could be done upon the horse in a given 

 time, and if the risk was too great, to avoid it altogether. 

 Sometimes it was extremely difficult to make these ex- 

 periments, as I could not have sufficient oijportunity or 

 privacy. No matter how much I might reason with the 

 people that upon the condition of their remaining in toAvn 

 would depend the success of the exj^eriment, as soon as I 

 started with the horse the whole crowd would break right 

 and left to follow me. For example, when in Ashtabula, 

 0., where I had a good subject offered, after trying twice 

 and finding the crowd would not be kept back, I succeeded 

 only by the following stratagem : An old scholar informing 

 me that he had a good place about half a mile out of town, 



