Finding it somewhat inconvenient to build academies in many places, I now purchased canvas for a movable tent, which I had constructed, and this I carried from place to place, erecting academies only where my tent was insufficient to accommodate the audiences. On the fourth of July I pitched my tent at the city of Elmira, and soon had the satisfaction of enrolling the names of one hundred and fifty persons, who eagerly sought information, and expressed the greatest gratification with the instruction they had received.
After this, I continued my tour, exhibiting and lecturing in many towns and villages during that summer and the autumn following. My success was everywhere of the most gratifying character, and exceeded my most sanguine expectations.
In bringing my system to the attention of the public, I employed that great engine of power, the Press to call attention alike to the cruelty of most of the previous modes of training the horse, and the superiority of my new and rational system. As an illustration of this, it may not be out of place to give a single one of my many addresses to the public through the medium of the press:
Professor O. S. Pratt to the Public.—Probably not one person in a thousand has any adequate idea of the wonderful intelligence displayed by the noblest of the brute creation, the horse. Patient, affectionate, sensitive and faithful, possessing wonderful powers of endurance and a capacity for education far exceeding any animal extant, a study of his characteristics is ennobling, and commands the attention of every intelligent person. But how often do we see him abused, through ignorance, compelled to draw tremendous loads for hours on a stretch, whipped, clubbed, and cursed, until patience ceasing to be a virtue, and through sheer exhaustion, panting, trembling, and discouraged, he stops to breathe, and men call him balky, apply the whip again, put sand in his ears, gravel in his mouth, twist his tail, and goad him to desperation by a system of barbarous inflictions unworthy of even the first stages of civilization. Trotting over slippery pavements, imperfectly shod, twitched to the right or left as a sudden emergency seems to demand, he stumbles and falls. No compassion is excited by this mishap. Hastily assisted to arise, and reharnessed, crack goes the whip. O, lash him, cut him, until the great ridges of swollen flesh stand out upon his back to testify to man’s superiority over the brute. Left standing for hours while the master attends to business or pleasure, impatient to change his position, he starts before the man is comfortably seated in the vehicle; crack again goes the whip, until his nerves are strung to their highest tension.
Crazed almost beyond endurance, he leaps forward, suddenly a bolt gives way, something strikes his heels, he becomes frightened, and then, “O! he’s a runaway!” Confined in a dungeon, poorly ventilated, called a stable, improperly fed, driven fast, compelled to draw heavy loads, with very little attention paid to his requirements, it is a wonder that he lives even a year. The question naturally arises, Why is this? Simply because the great masses of humanity are ignorant of the disposition of the horse. They do not understand how to manage or educate him. They do not think and therefore do not care. Now any one who succeeds in ameliorating the condition of this noble animal, is a public benefactor, deserving of the highest praise. Prof. O. S. Pratt has made this the study of his life. Slowly, but steadily, he has progressed in his investigations respecting the management of the horse, until the press, the pulpit and the public acknowledge him to be the “Great Horse Educator of the World.” In fact he rules the horse by a system so comprehensive, and at the same time so simple, that a child of ordinary intelligence can understand it. His pupils are numbered by the thousand in almost every State, and they all endorse the system heartily. No matter how badly the horse has been abused, no matter how disagreeable his disposition may be, no matter if he kicks, strikes, bites, or is a runaway, in a few minutes the most delicate lady or timid child can manage him with ease by using Prof. Pratt’s system. Ladies and gentlemen throughout the land! nearly every one has had a friend or relative injured or killed by some unmanageable horse. It is within the power of every person to prevent a like occurrence. “Knowledge is power.” Do not neglect the opportunity of acquiring this knowledge. We ask it in no selfish spirit. We urge it that a recurrence of the accidents that are every day filling our land with sorrow may be prevented.
CHAPTER III.
VISIT TO MONTROSE—LARGE CLASS AT SCRANTON—DIPLOMA—WILKESBARRE—ENTHUSIASTIC RECEPTION—COMPLIMENTARY NOTICE—TESTIMONIAL.
As the winter had now set in I found it necessary, on reaching the beautiful town of Montrose, to lay aside my tent. At this place I received so enthusiastic a reception that I was induced to erect a large academy, of capacity sufficient to contain at least one thousand persons. I remained at Montrose about three weeks, my efforts meeting with such appreciation that my class numbered five hundred and two persons, amongst whom were many who became my warm friends, and whose cordial greetings and good wishes attended me on my departure from the town.