510 PEESONAL EXPEDIENCE. 



pretensions. Hamilton won very general attention, but 

 his success was destroyed by killing two valuable horses, 

 and seriously injuring others. Pratt's extravagant preten- 

 sions attracted some notice, but upon trial he revealed him- 

 self to be an ignorant pretender, to whose management 

 they soon learned not to trust a good horse. Rockwell 

 was a man of much experience, a good horseman, and was 

 well calculated to make friends and win success ; but his 

 instructions did not add much to their knowledge. The 

 result was, the people felt they had nothing more to learn 

 from professed horse-tamers, and had so far lost confidence 

 in them that they would not trust a good horse to them for 

 treatment. 



Under such circumstances, it could not be expected that 

 a new applicant for favor would receive much attention ; 

 but I was bound to make the effort at all hazards. After 

 careful deliberation I determined to enlist the attention of 

 some leading horseman, whose standing for skill and verac- 

 ity would be above question. Mr. Robert Bonner was the 

 gentleman. With considerable difficulty, and without an- 

 nouncing my name, I was finally able to obtain admission 

 to his presence, when, without any preliminaries, I said to 

 him, " Sir, I will forfeit $1000 (which amount I held in my 

 hand), which you can retain, or devote to any benevolent 

 purpose you please, if I cannot take any horse that any 

 horseman or horse-tamer in the city or outside of it, living or 

 dead, has failed upon, and make him perfectly gentle in forty 

 minutes, without throwing or whipping, and within the 

 limits of even a box stall." Looking at me in surprise, he 

 asked, "How can you do it?" I replied, "It will take 

 about four minutes to explain." He said, " I will give you 

 five." But becoming interested, the interview was contin- 

 ued nearly an hour, when he expressed himself as very de- 

 sirous of seeing me make the experiment. 



