256 THE HORSE OF MR. VON OSTEN 



he had imposed, since the public demanded it, and he 

 could never assist in any tests, until he had been cleared 

 of the suspicion of having descended to the use of tricks. 

 If it should take weeks to accustom the horse to a new 

 questioner, there would be no alternative but to wait 

 that length of time. 



A happy circumstance helped us out of our difficulty. 

 We had chanced in our discussion to mention the ex- 

 perience of Dr. Miessner, a member of the commission, 

 who on the day before had gone to witness an exhibition 

 of the mare " Qever Rosa ", and who believed that 

 he had succeeded in discovering the tricks involved. 

 There was a sudden change in Mr. von Osten's attitude. 

 He expressed his willingness to undergo the most strin- 

 gent examination and agreed to anything in the way of 

 conditions of control, challenging even the proven ability 

 of Dr. Miessner. " I have neither whip nor rod, as had 

 the man in the exhibition, and agree to any precautionary 

 measures you may care to take." 



After he had gone, the commission decided to ask him 

 to have the horse perform one of the more common, 

 simple, feats. They were going to watch him very 

 closely. Different members were assigned the task of 

 attending to different parts of his body (head, eyes, right 

 hand, left hand, etc.) while Mr. Busch, since he was the 

 most proficient in the detection of tricks, was to regard 

 the total behavior of the man. 



The exhibitions included the indication of the day of 

 the week by means of taps, the day just past, the day 

 ahead, its date, arithmetical problems, and the counting 

 of rings strung upon a rod. Messrs. Grabow and Hahn 

 interpolated a few tests themselves, in which they did the 

 questioning. All tests were successful. 



