AUTHOE'S EEMAEKS. 



AS acknowledgments received of my knowledge of horses 

 and my ability to judge, care for, and give instructions 

 relative to, at different periods, I will mention a few, as perhaps 

 not being out of place here. 



In 1855, when a young man of twenty-seven years, I was 

 unanimously appointed a judge of horses in the stallion class 

 at the United States Agricultural Society's Fair, held in Bos- 

 ton, Mass., and where Ethan Allen and many other noted stal- 

 lions of that day were exhibited. 



At the outbreak of the civil war in America, in 1861, I was 

 offered a lieutenant's commission to go out with the First 

 Ehode Island Cavalry, as general superintendent of horses of 

 that cavalry. 



In 1870, on the occasion of acting as mounted escort to the 

 President of the United States, Gen. Grant, on his memorable 

 Fourth of July visit to Woodstock, Conn., as the guest of 

 Henry C. Bowen, of the New York Independent, at a halt on 

 our line of march from Putnam to Woodstock, I was intro- 

 duced to President Grant by Mr. Bowen, as being one of the 

 enterprising young men of Windham county. The President 

 remarked that I was mounted on a good animal which he 

 would wager was a Morgan. Mr. Bo wen's reply was: "Mr. 

 Dimon is considered one of the best horsemen in this State, 

 and if he rides a poor horse it is not for want of judgment in 

 selecting." 



In 1872, during the time of the great wide-spread epidemic 

 among horses called "epizootic," which for a time prostrated 

 nearly all the horses in the country, and which proved fatal to 

 so many, I had under my charge no less than twenty good ones, 



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