14 EXTREMES AND MODIFICATIONS OF CHARACTER. 



trampling him under foot, and recently bit the hand almost off the 

 person having him in charge. IN TWENTY MINUTES, in the presence 

 of between two and three hundred persons, Prof. Magner reduced this 

 brute to perfect subjection, so that the groom and himself harnessed 

 and unharnessed him, put their hands in his mouth, and handled him 

 in every shape with perfect impunity, the formerly furious beast being 

 as docile as a kitten. It was a wonderful exhibition, as we can bear 

 testimony. 



Three months after the above experiment, Mr. Ford, the 

 agent, wrote me the following letter : 



BUFFALO, Dec. 21, 1869. 

 PROF. MAGNER. 



Dear Sir, I consider myself in duty bound to write you respect- 

 ing our once-vicious horse, " Man-Eater " as we called him. I have 

 often said, " What a good thing it was we did not shoot him ! " He was 

 taken out of the stable twice for that purpose, when I, on both occa- 

 sions, interceded in his behalf. He is now one of our best horses, as 

 docile as a lamb. We work him double and single, as required. All 

 this was caused from your few minutes' tuition. 



Believe me, yours very truly, 



M. FORD, Agent, 

 Btiffalo Omnibus Company. 



In the fall of 1869 I was in the oil-regions of Pennsyl- 

 vania. When in Titusville my attention was called to a 

 remarkably wild horse in Petroleum Centre, owned by a 

 livery-keeper, named Smawley. This horse was known by 

 the name of WILD PETE, nine years old, a strong bay pony, 

 weighing about nine hundred pounds. This horse was en- 

 tirely wild, every effort that could be made to break him 

 having failed. He could not even be harnessed, and was 

 really worthless. When I went to this place WILD PETE 

 was thrown upon me as a menace ; and the difficulty was, I 

 had no place there where I could h'andle such a horse with 

 success and safety. I induced Mr. Smawley to lead him up 

 to Titusville, seven miles distant, where I proposed taking 

 the horse in hand out on the trotting-park. After one 

 hour's effort I had the hitherto Wild Pete completely gentle. 

 I drove him back to the city, and that evening to Petroleum 

 Centre , and he has been since then as gentle and safe a 

 carriage-horse as any in the stable, and has been, in fact, 

 used as a family carriage-horse. 



