THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 55 



The WHISPERER was now sent for. This myste- 

 rious horse-tamer soon arrived, was shut up with the 

 horse all night, and in the morning exhibited the 

 hitherto ferocious animal following him about the 

 course like a dog lying down at his command suf- 

 fering his mouth to be opened, and any person's 

 hand to be introduced into it in short, as quiet 

 almost as a sheep. He came out the same meeting 

 and won his race, and his docility continued satisfac- 

 tory for a considerable period; but at the end of 

 three years his vice returned, and then he is said to 

 have killed a man, for which he was destroyed. 



The man who effected the wonder we have just 

 recounted was an awkward, ignorant rustic of the 

 lowest class, of the name of Sullivan, but better 

 known by the appellation of the Whisperer. His 

 occupation was horse-breaking. The nickname he 

 acquired from the vulgar notion of his being able to 

 communicate to the animal what he wished by means 

 of a whisper; and the singularity of his method 

 seemed in some degree to justify the supposition. 

 How his art was acquired, or in what it consisted, he 

 never disclosed. He died about 1810. His son, who 

 followed him in the same trade, possessed but a small 

 portion of the art, having either never learned the true 

 secret, or being incapable of putting it into practice. 



