INTRODUCTION. 15 



It has been well known wherever I have traveled that 

 I taught my system as a secret which I never gave in 

 print ; and on account of the great expense in traveling, 

 requiring not only the aid of skilled men, but from five to 

 ten horses, to give me a reasonable compensation, I was 

 compelled to charge five, -and in some sections of country 

 ten dollars for such instructions, thus putting them within 

 the reach of but comparatively few. The importance, 

 then, of making this knowledge available to all at a moderate 

 cost, can be seen. 



After writing this introduction, I incidentally find in a work 

 called " The First Century, or One Hundred Memorable Events 

 in the History of Our Country/' by R. N. Devens, Esq., a chapter 

 on John S. Rarey's achievements, which is so remarkable in the 

 extravagance of its statements that I consider it necessary to refer 

 here to the facts in the case. After the lapse of twenty years, 

 when the method of treatment used by Rarey is not only known 

 by every school-boy, but has practically gone into disuse, such 

 statements from a man of Mr. Devens' reputation for historical 

 accuracy as a writer, a brother of a former Postmaster General, a 

 member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and author of 

 Appleton's Commercial and Business Encyclopedia, Lives of 

 Washington, Napoleon, Wellington, etc., in a work of so impor- 

 tant a character, by such an author as the one mentioned, it 

 carries with it such unusual weight that it would naturally, if un- 

 challenged, be accepted as indisputable authority. 



For the benefit of my readers, I will copy a few paragraphs 

 in relation to Cruiser, 'to show the extreme perversion of facts 

 when compared with the statements given under that head in 

 another chapter of this book: 



" Cruiser's habit, it appears, was to scream and yell when any 

 one approached him, to smash up his stall into lucifer matches, and 

 to attempt to bite and destroy every living thing in his neighbor- 

 hood. Noblemen used to go and throw articles into his brick 

 box, in order to see him fight. When he was to be fed or watered, 

 the first proceeding with his groom was to ascertain, by thrusting 

 a long pole in at the stable door, where the enemy stood, and then 



