476 PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 



While Mr. Burns was milking his cows in the morning, 

 I slipped into the stable and subjected the horse to simple 

 treatment, making him follow me around in the barn with- 

 out any difficulty whatever. After breakfast the owner 

 went to the barn to show me the horse, when I walked in 

 and led him out, and made him follow me around as gentle 

 as a pet.* The change was so great that he was led to ask 

 if I had not been doing something to the horse. I an- 

 swered, " Yes ; I went out before breakfast and got ac- 

 quainted with him ! " He said, " If you will show me what 

 you did with him, I will give you $50." This seemed to 

 me to be too much for so little knowledge ; but wishing the 

 money, the idea struck me instantly of instructing a num- 

 ber of persons at a nominal charge, and thereby fairly earn- 

 ing it ; and in answer I said, " That is too much for you to 

 pay ; but if you will get ten of your neighbors, at $5 each, 

 I will teach you for nothing." He at once went among 

 his neighbors, and in a short time returned accompanied by 

 a number of them, and handed me $50. f 



It now occurred to me that I was in a bad corner? 



* Since writing this paper, I am informed that this was the same horse that was 

 shot a few years afterward for his extreme viciousness. The statement made by 

 Mr. Burns authenticating this is as follows: " I drove this horse single until he was 

 five years old, when I put him into other hands for one year, and he became un- 

 manageable. I then sold him to J. & A. Wells, who afterward sold him in Middle- 

 town, N. T., and the authorities there ordered him shot on account of his vicious- 

 ness." In 1878 the writer was in the stable where this horse was confined and shot 

 a short time previous. 



f While writing this article, it occurred to me as of sufficient interest to write to 

 Mr. Burns for the names of those comprising this class. After much trouble in 

 obtaining his address (having heard nothing from him for over twenty years) I 

 wrote him, and received the following statement: 



" So far as I can remember, the names of the men in the class at my house 

 were J. D. Burns, Prompton, Pa.; J. E. Meyers, Canaan, Wayne Co., Pa.; J. S. 

 Collins, Keyser, Lackawanna Co., Pa. ; Andrew Coss, Canaan, Lackawanna Co., Pa. ; 

 Alva C. Bemeer, Canaan, Lackawanna Co., Pa. ; L. C. Darte, Ariel, Wayne Co., Pa. ; 

 Jason Myers, and myself. Tour friend, 



A. L. BURNS, 



"Thinning, Lacka. Co., Ja." 



