492 PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 



seemed to change at once ; that she looked as though she 

 wanted to get near me ; that to his amazement, when I 

 walked in by her side, she never offered to lift a foot or 

 show the least viciousness toward me, and that I handled 

 and stepped around her as unconcernedly as I would any 

 horse. The whole point of my doing this lay in being able 

 to discern her exact character and what she would bear. 

 The leading gentlemen then in the city from different parts 

 of the State, were excited to the highest pitch of curiosity 

 by the reports, as stated, of my powers, and it was deter- 

 mined to test me to the utmost degree. To insure this, a 

 special committee was appointed to visit the officers of each 

 company of the Fourth Maine Cavalry, which was at the 

 time encamped near the city, to learn the number and char- 

 acter of vicious horses among the twelve hundred belong- 

 ing to the regiment, and to select five supposed to be the 

 worst from the whole number reported, upon which to make 

 the promised experiments. Although apparently very 

 vicious, the subjects selected proved very simple and easy 

 cases to manage. I include editorial notices of the event : 



" Mr. Magner, the author of this philosophy, has astonished 

 the good people of Augusta and vicinity by the admirable and 

 perfectly successful demonstration of his system, in subduing and 

 controlling some of the most vicious and ungovernable specimens 

 of the horse fraternity that could be found among us. The 

 manifest and acknowledged importance of this art, and the desire 

 of the public to understand and witness the results of its applica- 

 tion, induced a crowded attendance of all classes on Mr. Magner 's 

 practical illustrations of his theory. All who attended, came 

 away fully convinced of, and perfectly satisfied with, the correct- 

 ness of the principles and workings of this new system. 



"Even the members of the Senate and House of Representa- 

 tives, and the members of the Executive Council, took a leisure 

 hour, laid by the affairs of State, forgot their parliamentary 

 squabbles, and found both amusement and instruction in witness- 

 ing the skill and consummate tact with which Mr. Magner 

 handled the hitherto incorrigible subjects brought forward to test 

 his new doctrine. Crowds of our most intelligent citizens were 



